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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 



Interdenominational 
Home Mission Study Course 

Each volume i2mo, cloth, 50c net (post extra) ; paper, 
30c. net (post extra) 

Under Our Flag. By Alice M. Guernsey. 

The Call of the Waters. By Katharine R. Crowell. 

From Darkness to Light. By Mary Helm. 

Conservation of National Ideals. A Symposium. 

Mormonism, the Islam of America. By Bruce Kinney, 
D.D. 

The New America. By Mary Clark Barnes and Dr. 
L. C. Barnes. 

America, God's Melting- Pot. By Laura Gerould Craig. 
Paper, net 25c. (post, extra). 

In Red Man's Land. A Study of the American Indian. 
By Francis E. Leupp. 

Home Missions in Action. By Edith H. Allen. 

Old Spain in New America. By Robert McLean, D.D. 
and Grace Petrie Williams. 

JUNIOR COURSE 

Cloth, net 40c. (post, extra); paper.net 25c (post extra). 

Best Things in America. By Katharine R. Crowell. 
Some Immigrant Neighbors. By John R. Henry, D.D. 
Comrades from Other Lands. By Leila Allen Dimock. 
GooDBiRD the Indian. By Gilbert L. Wilson. 
All Along the Trail, By Sarah Gertrude Pomeroy. 
Children of the Lighthouse. By Charles L. White. 



OLD SPAIN 
IN NEW AMERICA 



BY 

ROBERT MCLEAN 

•I 

Superintendent of Mexican Work in South West Home Mission 
Board Presbyterian Churchy U. S. A. 

AND 

GRACE PETRIE WILLIAMS 



Illustrated 



Issued by the 
COUNCIL OF WOMEN FOR HOME MISSIONS 

AflBfcriaium firms 

124 East 28th Street, New York 



Copyright, 1916, by 
J. F. McTyier 






-6 1916 
©CU431381 

• * . / 



FOREWORD 

There seemed to the General Committee of Twenty- 
eight, to which is committed the choice of topics for the 
text books for mission study, one outstandingly ap- 
propriate subject for 1916 — "The Two Americas." 

The national pride in the physical achievement of a 
completed Panama Canal has crystallized into appre- 
ciation of the new problems and greater responsibilities 
coming to the United States with the easier access to 
the West Coast of South America, and with the draw- 
ing together of all the peoples of the two continents. 
The continued disturbances in Mexico have aroused 
more earnest inquiry into the conditions that exist in 
that unfortunate country, and the reiterated demands 
for intervention by this government have emphasized 
its nearness to us. 

The Expositions of San Francisco and San Diego 
have acquainted the people of the North with the ad- 
vance made by the countries of the Southern Continent : 
the Pan-American Scientific Congress held in Washing- 
ton, D. C, in January, 1916, and the Congress on Chris- 
tian Work in Latin America held at Panama, February, 
191 6, have concentrated attention on the Spanish 
speaking peoples of the two continents and the adjacent 
islands. 

With such introductions what more logical than that 



vi FOREWORD 

the churches should this year study their relation to 
the Latin- American peoples who are without a knowl- 
edge of the Christ? 

The Home Mission text book of necessity confines 
itself to a study of those groups which live under the 
Stars and Stripes, i. e., the Mexicans living in the 
United States, and the Spanish speaking peoples of 
Porto Rico and Cuba. The latter group, being under 
the protection of this country, has been accepted as 
Home Mission territory by most of the denominations 
and is, therefore, included here. 

Believing that the Christian Church must be mightily 
aroused as to its responsibility for the Spanish speak- 
ing peoples of the continents, so that spiritual growth 
may keep pace with material development, the Council 
of Women for Home Missions, representing the 
Women's Home Mission Boards of sixteen denomina- 
tions, prayerfully sends forth this little book, trusting 
that through its agency there may be awakened a more 
responsive interest in those peoples who represent 
" Old Spain " in " New America." 

Publication Committee. 



Acknowledgment is made to Mr. R. C. Tillinghast, The 
Congregational Education Society, The Woman's Board of 
Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church, and The Ameri- 
can Missionary Society, for the pictures used as illustrations 
in this book. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER 1 

PAGE 

SPAIN IN AMERICA 3 

Period of Exploration and Conquest 

Aim of Early Explorers 4 

Discovery of America 5 

Search for the Fountain of Youth 6 

Conquest of Mexico 7 

Discovery of the Mississippi River 8 

Revolt of the Pueblos 9 

Capture of Acoma 12 

Settlement of Florida by Menendez 13 

Results of Spanish Conquest 

Population 14 

Mixture of Races 15 

Education in Latin America 16 

Indian Opposition 17 

Why Spanish Efforts in the New World Failed 

Advantages of Spain 18 

Reasons for Spanish Failure 19 

Words of a Spanish Statesman 20 

Comparison of Spanish and English Colonization . . 21 

Advantages of Saxon Colonization ...... 22 

Other Elements Contributed to Strengthen America . 23 

The Nineteenth Century 

CHAPTER II 

FOLLOWING THE CROSS ......... 29 

Missionary Work of the Spaniards 

Religious Motive 29 

Attitude of Natives 30 

vii 



viii CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Destructive Policy of Gergy 32 

Consecrated Missionaries 34 

Second Capture of Acoma • • • 35 

The Inquisition 36 

Religion of Mexicans 37 

The Old Missions 37 

Beginnings of Protestant Missions 

Early Missionaries 38 

Mexican People 41 

Hindrances to Missionary Efforts 42 

Power of God's Word 43 

The Penttentes 

A Land of Crosses 

CHAPTER III 

REDEEMING THE SOUTHWEST 51 

Conditions with Which Missionaries Contend 

Superstition and Belief in Witches 54 

Power of Priest 55 

Customs 58 

The Saloon 60 

Work of the Churches 

Evangelistic 61 

Educational 63 

Medical 68 

Social 70 

Results of Missionary Work 

In Homes 71 

Testimony of Roman Catholics 71 

Pupils Sent Out . . . 72 

Desire to Help Others 73 

Our Missionary Teachers 

Is the Work Worth While? 



CONTENTS ix 
CHAPTER IV 

PAGE 

CUBA PARA CRISTO 79 

Three Glimpses of Cuban History 

Days of Splendor 79 

Ten Years' War ., . 81 

Cuba Libre 82 

Cuba of To-day 

Geography and Climate 84 

Who Are the Cubans of To-day? 85 

Cuban Character 86 

Internal Improvements Begun by United States . . 88 

Education in Cuba . . .. . - 89 

Religious Work in Cuba 

Intolerance of Spain 90 

Evangelistic Work ........... 92 

Educational Work 94 

Cuba para Cristo ............ 96 

Cubans in the United States 

CHAPTER V 

OUR NEW POSSESSION ..... ., .„ ,. .. . 101 

Under the Power of Spain 

Discovery and Colonization ......... 101 

Ponce de Leon .......... ^ .. . 103 

Diego Columbus . . . . 103 

Coming of the Negroes .......... 104 

Better Days 104 

Freedom of the Slaves . 104 

Spanish Misrule .. M 105 

Our New Possession 

Government ....... 105 

Physical Conditions 107 

Sanitation and Health 108 



x CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Development of Education in Porto Rico 

Educational Conditions Under Spanish Occupation . no 

Growth of Schools Under United States .... no 

Religious and Moral Condition of the Porto Ricans 

Under Spanish Domination 112 

Protestant Entrance 114 

Church Comity 114 

Missionary Work 115 

Encouragements 116 

Effect on the Catholic Church 116 

Social Service 

Religious Settlements 118 

Orphanages 120 

Medical Work 120 

The Symbol of Liberty 

CHAPTER VI 

A NEW ERA 127 

Missionary Work Among Spanish Speaking Peoples 

Evangelistic Results 127 

Educational Results 128 

Medical and Social Work 128 

General Results 

Awakened Peoples 130 

A Christian Sabbath 131 

Comity . . . 132 

Larger Aims for the Future 

Better Understanding of Spanish-Americans . . . 133 

Better Knowledge of Spanish 134 

Better Knowledge of Mexicans in United States . . 135 

Leaders of Their Own People 136 

Educational Work 138 

More Work for the Homes 138 

Extension of Medical Work 139 

Opportunity God's Call to Action 

Call to Cuba and Porto Rico Answered 140 



CONTENTS xi 

PAGE 

Home Missions Our Defense 141 

A Lost Opportunity 141 

What Can We Do? 142 

The Bearing on Home Missions 143 

The Church's Problem 145 

APPENDIX 149 

Concerning the Great Southwest 149 

Population . 149 

Cuban Facts 150 

Porto Rican Figures 152 

Protestant Missions to Spanish Americans . . . .153 

Cuba 153 

Porto Rico 154 

In the Southwest 155 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 160 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Mission of San Xavier del Bac .... Frontispiece 

PAGE 

Map of Spanish Possessions at Time of Louisiana Pur- 
chase 26 

The Penitentes . 44 

Southwestern Desert 50 

Santiago de Cuba 66 

Typical Porto Rican Mountain Home 114 

Public School at Arecibo 114 

Modern Mission School in the Southwest .... 130 

Day Nursery in Porto Rico 130 



PREFACE 

The marked difference between Saxon and Latin 
America cannot be due wholly to climate or to race. 
There must be contributing causes that have removed 
the stimulus from the people of Latin America ; there 
must have been a fundamental lack in their system that 
would account for their lack of progress. As the re- 
ligious faith of a nation largely determines its progress 
and its destiny, it seems legitimate to ask whether the 
form of Christianity introduced long ago has not 
proved itself inadequate to create a civilization that 
would develop the best qualities of those who ac- 
cepted it. 

Great honor is due those early missionaries of the 
Roman Catholic Church, who came with the explorers 
and adventurers, and who alone mitigated to the In- 
dians the severities of the conquerors. They planted 
many missions but they committed the fatal error of 
adapting Christian worship to the beliefs and practices 
of pagan tribes. Instead of Christianizing paganism, 
they allowed their Christianity to become paganized. 
In the place of patiently teaching right thinking and 
right living to the Indians, the more expeditious 
method was adopted of having the converts conform 
mechanically to a system differing but slightly from 
that they had always practiced. The Roman Catholic 

xiii 



xiv PREFACE 

Church did so many wonderful things in the two 
Americas that it is impossible not to grieve that there 
should not have been that deeper knowledge of truth 
that would have laid in this hemisphere the foundation 
of a spiritual and vital religion. 

The Protestant founders of this nation brought with 
them high ideals and a true knowledge of spiritual 
things ; the nation they founded has often failed at the 
testing times, but those ideals have ever been before it 
and toward them it has striven. The churches thus es- 
tablished have sought the highest development of the 
individual, they have demanded that his personal ac- 
ceptance of Christian truths and his transformed life 
shall conform; they have sought a regenerated social 
conscience and works that should show to a doubting 
world the truth of their professions. 

The mission of the Protestant Church is not to de- 
stroy the Roman Catholic Church, but to bring it into 
cooperation with all Christian forces on the one foun- 
dation Christ Jesus, and for the one work, to make Him 
known as King and Lord. Recognizing the splendid 
men and women of that communion, we are yet face to 
face with the fact that its system, left to itself, is one 
that breeds paralysis. 

The Spanish- American peoples offer wonderful pos- 
sibilities to those communions that are ready to meet 
them with vital, transforming truths ; there must be a 
close union of all the forces that are Christian to carry 
to a successful conclusion one of the greatest tasks of 
the Church. 



I 

SPAIN IN AMERICA 



" My men grow mutinous day by day, 
My men grow ghastly wan and weak." 

The stout mate thought of home; a spray 
Of salt wave washed his swarthy cheek. 

" What shall I say, brave Admiral, say, 
If we sight naught but seas at dawn ? " 

" Why, you shall say at break of day, 

1 Sail on ! sail on ! sail on, and on ! ' " 

Joaquin Miller. 

" And while he held above his head the conquering flag of 
Spain, 

He waved his glancing sword and smote the waters of the 
main; 

For Rome! For Leon! For Castile! thrice gave the cleav- 
ing blow, 

And thus Balboa claimed the sea four hundred years ago." 

T. B. Read. 



OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 



SPAIN IN AMERICA 

The early maps of the United States showed west o£ 
the Missouri River a vast stretch of country extending 
to and beyond the Rockies marked " The Great Amer- 
ican Desert." The steady progress of civilization has 
redeemed that desert and it is now the great granary of 
the North American continent. The utilization of the 
streams, the opening of the fountains held in reserve 
by the bountiful Creator, and the planting of forests 
to conserve the rainfall, have made the " desert " the 
happy dwelling place of throngs of prosperous people. 
Millions of acres of the public domain are still unre- 
deemed, and await the action of the government in 
developing their resources to make them the fit habita- 
tion of the millions who will yet come to our shores. 

Scattered throughout this great region are the mis- 
sions of the Protestant Church to the Mexicans, one of 
our great Spanish speaking peoples. To understand 
the Mexican of the United States as he now presents 
himself, we must know the elements of which he is com- 
posed. We cannot, in our discussion of the Mexican 
missionary problem in the United States, separate it 

3 



4 OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

from the problem in old Mexico. The problem was 
created while yet our whole Southwest was under the 
Mexican flag, or, farther back, under that of Spain. 
The Spanish population within the boundaries of the 
United States is the product of Spanish activity in ex- 
ploration and colonization in the sixteenth century, and 
the character and condition of the people must be inter- 
preted in the light of the character, teachings, and con- 
ditions of that age. 

Old Spain has left her impress upon the whole 
Southwest. Spanish names cling to villages and 
towns ; the language and religion of Spain are to a great 
extent the language and religion of today; the results 
of her persecution and oppression are everywhere 
visible. It is the Spain of Philip the Second, the Spain 
that has not been touched to any degree by the spirit 
of modern progress, the Spain that is not in harmony 
with American ideals or American ideas of intellectual 
or spiritual growth. The churches of America have 
no greater task than the transformation by the teach- 
ings of the Gospel of this bit of Old Spain into a re- 
gion that shall possess the highest ideals of the New 
America. 

Period of Exploration and Conquest 

Aim of the Early Explorers. The fifteenth century 
was distinguished as a period of great physical activity 
among men. There were voyages, discoveries, and ex- 
plorations ; there were many new inventions, chief 
among them the mariner's compass. Two trade routes 
between Europe and the East had been used for cen- 



SPAIN IN AMERICA 5 

tunes, but the capture of Constantinople by the Turks 
in 1453 closed the northern route while the southern 
was practically under the control of Venice. The other 
powers hoped to find a new way to the Indies, and 
Portuguese navigators, by following the coast of 
Africa, finally reached their goal. The new theory 
advanced that the earth was round led others to be- 
lieve they would achieve success by sailing westward. 
The Discovery of America. Columbus was the first 
to try to prove that such a route was possible. The 
story of his attempt to equip an expedition, of the 
courage of the leader, and of the despair of the sailors 
is familiar to all. Columbus did not realize his desire; 
but he opened to the world a new continent. The great 
navigator was received with the highest honors by the 
Spanish when he returned from his first voyage with 
trophies of conquest, and men were eager to embark 
with him on succeeding voyages. As the Pope, whose 
authority was recognized by most rulers, had granted 
Portugal the land she had discovered along the African 
coast, Spain asked that the countries in the west be 
guaranteed to her. The Pope was desirous of peace, 
and decided that Spain should hold all the lands west of 
a line three hundred and seventy leagues west of the 
Cape Verde Islands that were not already claimed by 
some Christian power, while Portugal was to have 
possession of the eastern regions. Many men accom- 
panied Columbus on his second and third voyages and 
colonies were established in the islands discovered by 
him, but there was great disappointment in Spain be- 
cause the riches they had expected were not found. 



6 OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

His popularity later declined and he became an object 
of derision; by the common people he was called the 
"Admiral of Mosquito Land," and broken-hearted, 
practically disgraced, he died in poverty. 

The Search for the Fountain of Youth. Ponce de 
Leon was one of the many whose desire for wealth and 
adventure led them to the New World. He was gov- 
ernor of Porto Rico, but, losing the favor of the King, 
was removed from his office. The desire for gold had 
not been satisfied and a still greater desire possessed 
him. De Leon had heard strange stories of the land 
where there was a Fountain of Immortality. It seemed 
to him well worth while to seek out this fountain, to 
bathe therein, and then live to enjoy the wealth and 
power he felt sure would be in the new land. The 
King of Spain gave his consent to the undertaking, ap- 
pointing de Leon governor for life of the country he 
planned to discover. An expedition was fitted out at 
great expense. The men sailed from island to island 
searching for the fountain and for gold, and on Easter 
Sunday, 1513, called by the Spaniards " Pascua de 
Flores," the coast of Florida was sighted. Three days 
later the men landed, and because of the day when it 
was first seen, and the profusion of beautiful flowers 
and foliage, de Leon named the land Florida. The 
search for the Fountain of Immortality was continued 
unsuccessfully and de Leon, bitterly disappointed, re- 
turned to Porto Rico. A few years later he went back 
to his province of Florida only to receive a mortal 
wound from the arrow of one of the Indians who op- 
posed his landing. His entire wealth was lost in this 



SPAIN IN AMERICA J 

last expedition and sick, old, and impoverished, he re- 
turned to Cuba to die. 

The Conquest of Mexico. Spanish history of the 
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries records stories of 
adventure and romance that seem almost incredible to 
people of the twentieth century, but it tells no more 
desperate nor exciting tale than that of the expedition 
of Cortez against Mexico in 15 19. When this Spanish 
youth first came to the New World he attracted the 
attention of the secretary of the governor of Cuba who 
told him that the governor would doubtless settle a good 
estate upon him. The confident boy answered, " But I 
came to get gold, not to till the soil like a peasant." 
Rumors had reached Cuba of the cities and people who 
lived just west of them, whose empire contained all the 
gold, silver, and jewels the Spaniards had been seeking. 
Cortez was chosen to lead an expedition against the 
land, and prepared for the voyage with tireless energy, 
only to find as the time to embark drew near that the 
jealous governor had decided to take the appointment 
from him. Cortez hastened his preparations and 
slipped away in the night. 

He spent some months sailing westward along the 
coast of the mainland, and then with eleven ships landed 
on the southern shore. Cortez was fearless, a leader 
who admitted no possibility of defeat. To make sure 
that there should be no temptation to withdraw from 
the attempt, all but the best one of the ships were 
beached and burned at the place of landing, which 
was named Vera Cruz. The inhabitants of the coun- 
try were greatly alarmed at the approach of strangers, 



8 OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

and their ruler, Montezuma, sent presents to the in- 
vaders with the request that they turn back. Cortez 
moved steadily forward. His guns and horses, which 
were seen then for the first time by the Aztecs, terri- 
fied them and they were ready to believe Cortez the 
war god of their legends. With remarkable tact 
he was soon in control of the country, Montezuma 
trusting him absolutely. Unfortunately Cortez had to 
return to Vera Cruz for a time, and his substitute was 
so cruel that the people rose against the Spanish. Cor- 
tez, on his return, persuaded Montezuma to try to 
pacify his subjects. They were stilled for a few 
months but later broke out more fiercely than before 
against the white men, Montezuma himself being 
killed in this uprising. Cortez immediately made the 
attempt to lead his men out of the capital, Tenochtitlan, 
under cover of the darkness, but did not escape the 
Aztecs who attacked from all sides. 

The bloody struggle of that night has few parallels 
in history. It has been called ever since Noche Triste, 
the " doleful night." Although his forces had been 
fearfully reduced, Cortez did not despair, but by a most 
daring attack within a few days regained control of the 
city, adding new territory to the empire of Spain. 

Discovery of the Mississippi River. One of the ad- 
venturers of the day who had joined an expedition to 
Peru was Hernando de Soto. When he started on his 
journey he was almost penniless but he returned a man 
of great wealth. With others, de Soto begged royal 
permission to attempt again the colonization of Florida, 
for he believed that the gold and silver that were in 



SPAIN IN AMERICA 9 

other parts of the New World must be found in Florida 
as well. Having obtained the consent of the King, he 
prepared a fleet of nine vessels, carrying almost a 
thousand men, as well as horses, swine, and blood- 
hounds. Men of birth were eager to share the adven- 
tures of this well known leader. Troops were landed 
at Tampa Bay and the ships went to Havana for pro- 
visions. Like most of the Spaniards, de Soto treated 
the Indians cruelly and was hated by them in return. 
His forces moved farther and farther westward in 
their useless search for gold, finding instead " fighting, 
fever, and famine." Some adventurers had reached 
the mouth of the Mississippi ; de Soto was the first to 
explore the river above the entrance to the Gulf. His 
party crossed it and wandered many miles beyond, only 
to return disappointed to its banks. The leader, dis- 
couraged by misfortunes, died and was buried in the 
great river he had discovered. The few survivors of 
the expedition sailed down the Mississippi and found 
protection among Spanish settlers in Mexico. 

Revolt of the Pueblos. Some of these adventurers^ 
who had been unsuccessful in their journey ings, excited 
the Spaniards in Mexico with tales of the " seven 
cities of Cibola " that were filled with treasures of 
gold. A priest first went north and found the cities, 
now believed to have been the villages of the Zuni 
Indians in the present New Mexico. On his return the 
Spaniards, always indefatigable in their pursuit of 
treasure, planned an advance on the country under 
Coronado. It would be interesting to follow the in- 
trepid Spanish explorers through the region now form- 



io OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

ing the states of New Mexico, Arizona, and Cali- 
fornia, but neither space nor the purpose of this 
volume will permit. The history of exploration has 
hardly a parallel to the courage and tenacity of pur- 
pose that characterized this invading army. Tourists 
today speak of the hardships and discomforts of a 
summer trip across the desert in a Pullman, but these 
men cheerfully explored those desert places, carrying 
provisions and water, suffering hunger and thirst, 
heat and cold without impairment of discipline or 
abatement of courage. The motives were mixed: the 
adventurers were lured by lust for gold, the patriots 
were animated by the desire to add to the glory of the 
Church and Crown, the priests by the desire to con- 
vert the natives to the faith of the Church. 

Everywhere the Indians received them kindly, but 
the Spaniards in most cases grossly abused the hospi- 
tality. A few examples will suffice to reveal the causes 
that finally led to the revolt of the Pueblos and a most 
desperate attempt on their part to rid their land of the 
invaders. 

Coronado's expedition into what is now New Mexico 
took place in 1540, and, coming to their villages at the 
beginning of winter, he not only quartered his soldiers 
upon the natives and consumed their winter's supplies, 
but demanded of them one hundred pieces of cotton for 
his men. Without giving them time either to weave the 
goods or to collect them from others, he sent out collec- 
tors with a company of soldiers and stripped the In- 
dians of the clothing they were wearing. 

In one of the villages the camp-master, Lope de 



SPAIN IN AMERICA n 

Samaniego, was killed by an Indian arrow, and his 
death was avenged by hanging every Indian belonging 
to the place. 

An officer insulted the wife of a prominent Indian, 
but Coronado gave no heed to the complaint of the hus- 
band. At length the Indians resolved to protect them- 
selves, so, barricading their pueblos, 1 they made war 
upon the Spaniards. The battle that followed was a 
desperate one, but finally superior arms and discipline 
prevailed, and the Indians, worn by the long de- 
fense and smoked out of their houses, came out and 
called for quarter. Two of the Spanish officers re- 
sponded by crossing their arms, the Indian sign of 
inviolable friendship. On seeing this, the Indians 
threw down their arms and surrendered. Who was to 
blame for the infamous treachery that followed is not 
clear, but Coronado's orders were that none should be 
spared. He directed that two hundred stakes be driven 
into the ground and that the Indians be burned alive. 
The historian says that no protest was made by the two 
officers who had pledged their sacred honor for the 
safety of the captives. 

The " seven cities of Cibola " were never found, al- 
though Coronado advanced as far north as Kansas. 
When de Soto and his followers were in their most 
desperate straits, Coronado and his men without doubt 
were but a short distance from them. Had the leader 
pushed a little farther east, " he might have shaken 

1 The Pueblo Indians were named from their peculiar style 
of communal dwelling, built from two to five stories high 
around a court, and easily defended. 



12 OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

hands with de Soto and with him wept tears of disap- 
pointment " over their accumulation of misfortunes. 

The Capture of Acoma. On a lofty, perpendicular 
rock, having on the summit an area of about seventy 
acres of arable land, was located the " Sky City " of 
Acoma which may to-day be reached by driving from 
Laguna. A half century after the expedition of Cor- 
onado and the revolt of the Indians, Don Juan Onate 
visited New Mexico to make another attempt to estab- 
lish Spanish authority. Pueblo after pueblo submitted, 
offering no resistance. On October 27, 1598, he camped 
at the foot of the cliffs on which Acoma was built. 
The chief men came down and invited Onate and his 
followers to visit them. They finally consented, and 
barely escaped annihilation at the hands of the In- 
dians. The refusal of Onate to enter the Estufa, or 
underground Council House, was all that saved them. 
The Indians had concealed a band of armed warriors 
in the darkness, prepared to avenge the sufferings of 
their countrymen in the other pueblos. 

In November of the same year the " Sky City " was 
again visited by another Spanish force under Juan de 
Zaldivar, and when they were scattered about the vil- 
lage the Indians suddenly attacked from all sides; of 
the whole band four only escaped by a daring leap from 
the cliff, fortunately striking upon great sand heaps 
below. 

In January of the following year a brother of Zaldi- 
var made an attack upon Acoma and after a most 
bloody battle succeeded in capturing the place, but only 
after nearly all the defenders were killed. Acoma was 



SPAIN IN AMERICA 13 

later repeopled by the Indians, but they never were 
friendly to their Spanish conquerors. 

The Settlement of Florida by Menendez. After 
several attempts at colonization in Florida the Span- 
iards appear to have abandoned the effort. In 1564 
Admiral Coligny, the great French commander, planned 
to place there a colony of French Huguenots. The site 
selected was the mouth of the St. John's River. 
Here the colonists built a fort and began the explora- 
tion of the interior of the country. Lawless and dis- 
contented adventurers greatly hampered the better class 
in their efforts to develop their holdings, and it was 
only when in August, 1565, Jean Ribaut came with 
several hundred new colonists, among them many 
artisans, that the attempt at colonization appeared to 
offer prospects of permanency. 

Unfortunately for the future of that land, the Span- 
iards decided to make another attempt to colonize 
Florida. News of the French expedition reached Spain 
while Pedro Menendez de Aviles was preparing to sail 
with his force of 2,500 men. He landed in Florida in 
September of that same year, and took formal posses- 
sion in the name of the crown of Spain. A surprise 
night attack gave them possession of the French fort ; 
the scattered French were defeated and captured in 
detail. In response to their offer of surrender if their 
lives would be spared, Menendez writes : " I answered 
that they might give up their arms and place themselves 
at my mercy and I would deal with them as the Lord 
should command me." He declined an offer of 50,000 
ducats for their safety, and " conscientiously " put them 



14 OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

to the knife in cold blood. One account relates that one 
detachment was captured and hanged with this inscrip- 
tion above them, " Not as Frenchmen, but as Luther- 
ans." 

Two years later an expedition of Frenchmen under 
Dominic de Gourges recaptured the fort taken from the 
French, and all the Spaniards who escaped the sword 
were hanged with this inscription above them, " Not as 
Spaniards, but as traitors, robbers, and murderers." 
So were the wrongs of the French avenged. 

Results of Spanish Conquest 

Population. Dr. Bourne quotes from the report of 
Juan Lopez de Velasco to the Council of the Indies in 
1576. "Velasco enumerates in the New World some 
two hundred Spanish cities and towns with some min- 
ing settlements. These towns, together with the stock- 
farms and plantations, contained one hundred and sixty 
thousand Spaniards of whom about four thousand were 
encomenderos, — i. e. lords of Indian serfs — the rest 
settlers, miners, traders, and soldiers. Of Indians 
there were probably about eight or nine thousand vil- 
lages, inclusive of tribes or parts of tribes, containing 
one million five hundred thousand men of tribute-pay- 
ing age (fifteen to sixty), or an approximate Indian 
population of about five million, not counting the con- 
siderable number who escaped taxation, either because 
not yet reduced to village life or because they hid away. 
The Indians were divided into three thousand seven 
hundred repartimientos belonging to the king or to 
private persons. In addition there were about forty 



SPAIN IN AMERICA 15 

thousand Negro slaves and a large number of mestizos 
and mulattoes. 

" The great mass of the Indians were nominally 
Christians and were living as civilized men, and their 
numbers were increasing." 

If the figures of Velasco are correct, one cannot help 
wondering what became of that great Indian population. 
Did they become decimated by slavery and abuse as did 
the Indian population of Porto Rico? 

Mixture of Races. The Indians of Latin America, 
whose blood, mingled with that of their Spanish con- 
querors, flows in the veins of the great mass of the 
population south of the Rio Grande, had attained before 
the coming of the white man a higher degree of civili- 
zation than had the Indians of North America. They 
were proficient in agriculture, while their knowledge of 
astronomy was astonishing. They had never learned to 
use an alphabet, but had invented a picture writing. 
They cast gold and silver vases. Some of the treasures 
sent to Spain by the conquerors are now in the Amer- 
ican Room of the British Museum. 

To-day some of the proudest statesmen of Mexico 
boast of the purity of their Indian blood. Benito 
Juarez, the one reverenced above all others as liberator 
because his indomitable courage and masterful leader- 
ship thwarted the attempt of Austria, France, and Rome 
to establish a monarchy on the ruins of the Republic, 
was of pure Indian blood, and this same blood predomi- 
nated in Porfirio Diaz, Mexico's most brilliant presi- 
dent 

The Spanish adventurers freely intermarried with the 



16 OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

natives, and, whatever else may have been lacking in 
their education, wives and children were taught to fol- 
low the religion of their husbands and fathers, and also 
to accept unquestioningly whatever the priests deemed 
essential to their eternal welfare. Old Spain, with all 
that inhered in the old feudalism that was disappearing 
from Europe, was thus bodily transplanted to America. 
The mingling of the Spanish and Indian bloods in a race 
that was molded in the fanatical monastery schools is 
sufficient explanation of the medieval character of 
the population of the Southwest at the time of the 
incorporation of this territory into the union of the 
States. 

Education in Latin America. Educational facilities 
were provided for the wealthy. The first printing 
press in America was set up in Mexico City by Bishop 
Zumarraga about 1535. The oldest books in America 
came from that press. Books published in that century 
are still in existence, and are a credit to the men who 
wrought the evidence of their skill into these fine and 
enduring specimens of art. 

A great industrial school was founded in Mexico City 
near the middle of the 16th century by Pedro de Gante, 
a blood relative of the Emperor Charles V. The Uni- 
versity of Mexico opened its doors in 1553, and had an 
enrollment of more than one thousand students ; among 
the instructors were found some of the finest educators 
of Europe, many of them graduates of the University 
of Salamanca, then at the highest period of its glory. 
Among the branches taught in the industrial school 
were Latin, music, painting, and the manufacture of 



SPAIN IN AMERICA 17 

crosses — then so much in demand — standards and 
other articles for ecclesiastical use. 

The students were taught wood carving, carpentry, 
engraving, and stone-cutting. In the ruins of many of 
the old churches are found excellent specimens of the 
workmanship of these first pupils of the Spanish 
Pioneers. Nearly three-quarters of a century before 
the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers on Plymouth Rock, 
Mexico City was the centre of culture and industry. 
Massively constructed and magnificently adorned 
churches were built in the most prominent places in all 
the more important cities and villages, while public 
works received far more attention than they did in the 
two succeeding centuries. Great aqueducts were built 
to convey water from the mountains to the fertile val- 
leys, fine roads were constructed and mines were 
opened, employing thousands of workers and yielding 
millions of gold, silver and copper, while substantial 
and costly public buildings were erected in every city. 
The Spaniards of that day utilized to the limit the ser- 
vices of the natives, and could those old ruins be given 
voice, what stories they might tell of a peaceful people 
being crushed to satisfy the lust for gold and power of 
a stronger race! 

Indian Opposition. The Indians did not submit 
without heroic attempts to oust the invaders, who had 
become their masters. Charles F. Lummis declares, 
in " Spanish Pioneers," that the stories of cruelties 
practiced upon the Indians by the Spaniards are 
" wholly untrue," and he pictures the Spanish conquest 
as animated by the most sincere desire for the material 



18 OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

and moral uplift of the natives in the New World. 
Halos are given to Cortez and Pizarro, and Fray Val- 
verde, to whom historians attribute the doubtful credit 
of having given the signal for the massacre of Atahual- 
pa's force, is called " Good Fray Valverde." Ata- 
hualpa's death was, according to Lummis, the necessary 
result of his own " treachery " toward the Spaniards. 
These apologies will not obscure the fact that, conceding 
the energy, the enthusiasm, the zeal, and the consecra- 
tion of the missionaries, there was something cruel, 
something radically wrong with the whole Spanish sys- 
tem of colonization, some inherent principle because of 
which God did not suffer it to dominate the whole New 
World. Its moving spirit was that which overran Hol- 
land, that of Sevilla and Valladolid, the spirit that de- 
stroyed or drove out more than twelve millions of the 
best blood of Spain, " sacrificing," as one Spanish his- 
torian says, " her material interests to conserve the 
spiritual." 

Why Spanish Efforts in the New World Failed 

Advantages of Spain, Spain had greater advantages 
in her attempts to control the New World than any 
other nation that came to our shores. She was mistress 
of the seas; she was the first country to reach the 
western hemisphere; she had great wealth and daring 
men; she chose the southern lands where the Indians 
were partly civilized and not as able to oppose the white 
man as were the northern tribes, and where the riches 
of the soil were hidden. In spite of all these advan- 
tages Spain failed. 



SPAIN IN AMERICA 19 

Reasons for Spanish Failure. New Spain, as it was 
known in the sixteenth century, included nearly all the 
country around the Gulf of Mexico and reached west- 
ward as far as California. Explorers penetrated to the 
north as far as Kansas and on the Atlantic coast even 
to Virginia. The Spaniards founded the two oldest 
towns in the United States, St. Augustine and Santa 
Fe. Spain possessed splendid material upon which to 
build a strong and progressive civilization. That mix- 
ture of races that gives the energy of a Cortez and the 
sturdy, incorruptible patriotism of a Benito Juarez, is 
capable of accomplishing anything that the Creator may 
ask of His creatures. Yet today Spain holds none of 
this great territory that was hers by right of discovery 
and conquest. In most cases the territory claimed by 
Spaniards overlapped that claimed by other countries. 
The other countries held the disputed territory through 
superior strength. The defeat of the Spanish Armada 
made it impossible for Spain to attempt to control the 
coast. Spain had no great desire to colonize. Like 
young Cortez, her men were unwilling to till the soil, 
desiring to find gold without labor and to enjoy the 
wealth they gained without exertion. The aristocracy 
of Spain did not look with any more favor upon the 
development of educational institutions in her colonies 
in America than did England upon the development of 
industries in her colonies prior to the Revolution. The 
colonies of Spain were for exploitation, not for develop- 
ment. The two great motives for progress, love and 
hope, had no place in the system imposed by the Span- 
iards, and gross darkness and hopeless stagnation 



20 OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

settled upon the people. Spain held her colonies in an 
iron grip, but never helped them to a higher life. 

The Words of a Spanish Statesman. In 1871 Emilio 
Castelar, Spain's greatest statesman, advocating in the 
Cortes a more liberal and progressive policy in the 
colonies of Spain, said : " When from our narrow 
visible horizon we turn our eyes to the whole world, 
we see that the continents are ruled by universal and 
unchangeable laws; that Asia is the land of the im- 
movable past, the land of empires, of theocracies, of 
castes ; Europe is the land of the volcanic present, the 
land of combat between ancient powers and new ideas ; 
while America, and above all, Saxon America, with its 
immense virgin territories, with its rising republics, 
with its equilibrium between stability and progress, with 
its harmony between liberty and democracy, is the con- 
tinent of the future, the immense blackboard stretched 
by God between the Atlantic and the Pacific, upon 
which the human race may write, test and solve all 
social problems. The closing years of the 19th cen- 
tury upon which we have entered may be as grave and 
momentous as the closing years of the 1 8th century 
when the French Revolution broke out. It rests with 
Europe to decide whether she shall follow Asia, erecting 
upon her soil the old altars, and upon the old altars the 
old idols, with her idols the immovable theocracies, 
with her theocracies despotic empires ; or whether she 
will go by the way of labor, by liberty, by right to co- 
operate with America in the work of universal civiliza- 
tion. And a most important factor in this civilization 
may be our Spain with her glorious past." Castelar 



SPAIN IN AMERICA 21 

did not hesitate to charge Spain's decadence to the 
dominant church. He said : " We know that a demo- 
cratic state cannot bear in its bosom a privileged church ; 
democracy was born under the curse of the church." 

Could Spain at that time have heard and heeded 
these stirring words, the story of the two Americas 
might have been far different. 

Comparison of Spanish and English Colonisation. 
Edward Gaylord Bourne, in " Spain in America," says : 
"If we compare what the Spaniards accomplished in 
the 1 6th century with the work of the English in the 
17th, we shall appreciate that, although different in 
character and less in accord with our predilections and 
prejudices, it was, nevertheless, one of the greatest 
achievements of human history. They undertook the 
magnificent if impossible task of lifting a whole race 
numbering millions into the sphere of European 
thought, life and religion. Yet this thought and life 
and religion were so different in many respects from 
the ideals which now appeal to the descendants of the 
17th century English Protestant that we instinctively 
appraise the attempt of the Spaniards both by modern 
standards and by the measure of their failure, rather 
than by the degree of their success." 

The light of the sixteenth century was not that of 
the twentieth, nor is the light of the twentieth century 
that in which our own civilization will finally be 
judged. When we compare the work of the Spaniards 
with that of the English as colonists in the New World, 
the more amazing appears the general assumption as 
to the assured superiority of the Saxon, and the oft 



22 OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

repeated assertion that the attempt to bring the present 
day descendants of Indians and Spanish adventurers 
up to the level of the Saxon is doomed to fail. 

Advantages of Saxon Colonization. President Gates, 
of Amherst College, says : " At the time when the 
colonies that formed the vital nucleus of our American 
life came from the mother land, England overflowed 
with Puritan zeal, and Puritan godliness, and virility of 
soul. England's life had been deepened and made 
spiritual. It was no longer marked by the brilliant and 
seething effervescence of the Elizabethan age. Even 
before that time the Wars of the Roses had broken up 
that comfortable, materialistic tendency to ' settle on 
the lees ' that has proved so deadly to so many nations. 
Take your place in one of the great cathedral churches 
of England, and as the service is intoned and the words 
fall on your ear, ' O Lord, send peace in our day/ let 
the thought make real before your eyes the emotions 
that led to that petition. See the faces of the worn old 
warriors and of the long-suffering women whose 
families had been rent asunder by the Wars of the 
Roses, and by the Civil War; men and women whose 
hearts went out to God in an agony of petition in these 
words, as they longed to establish something of peace 
and family life again in homesteads that had been deso- 
lated by these long struggles. There had come to Eng- 
land out of this deep suffering a great moral renovation. 
The Lollards had kindled a light. Luther had spoken 
more clearly and emphatically. The wonderful intel- 
lectuality of Elizabeth's reign had given a new con- 
sciousness of power and a fresh sense of national unity 



SPAIN IN AMERICA 23 

to the English people. The struggle between Papist 
and Protestant had forced Englishmen to think out for 
themselves theories of government and of personal 
religion and personal responsibility. Then came the 
insincerity, the wilful yet feeble despotism of the 
Stuarts. It clashed with the forged steel of Prot- 
estantism, and was broken against the Ironsides, — 
Cromwell's Christian heroes. It was at such a time 
from the best life of England the scion was transplanted 
to America. The very best of English life was taken. 
In the history of our dear motherland, this was pre- 
eminently the time for her to become the noble parent 
of a still nobler offspring. There was iron in the 
blood. There was faith in the life. Do you remember 
how near Cromwell came to embarking as an emigrant 
to America? When next you visit our oldest univer- 
sity at Cambridge, go into the library of Harvard, gaze 
at the death-mask of Cromwell's face, — a part of the 
noble gift of Carlyle to his admirers among the young 
men of America, — and as you note the massive power 
of those features and recall the work which that man's 
iron will accomplished for England and for the liber- 
ties of the world, remember that it was men of his con- 
victions and of his training who came swarming to 
America, at a time when he so nearly accompanied 
them. They became the fathers of our national life. 
They impressed upon our institutions and our ideals 
the life that made England under Cromwell and Mil- 
ton the foremost nation of the world." 

Other Elements Contributed to Strengthen America. 
Other strengthening elements entered into the making 



24 OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA . 

of the nation. Holland had fought the world's battle 
against the legions of all-conquering Spain, and had 
won her freedom of worship and conscience. With the 
band of Englishmen, exiled for conscience' sake, who 
sought a place to build their altars to God, there went a 
mingling of sturdy Dutch and fire-tried Huguenot, all 
animated by one purpose, and these laid the founda- 
tions of a free government in that portion of the new 
world now known as Saxon America. Bowing the 
knee only to God, basing their laws upon His revealed 
Word, believing in the equality and brotherhood of man, 
these men and women were fitted in the trial by fire to 
give to the world a high type of human government. 
Their ideals are the ideals of Christian America ; and 
a continued striving toward these ideals is sufficient 
explanation of the growth and greatness of Saxon 
America. To conserve these ideals is the work of the 
Church of the living Christ. 

The Nineteenth Century 

The story of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries 
of Spanish occupation of the Mexican territory is one 
of oppression and tyranny endured through necessity 
by the conquered natives. Not until the nineteenth 
century did they make any effort to release themselves 
from this bondage. One rebellion after another was 
suppressed until that of 1821, when the Mexicans were 
able to throw off the yoke of Spain. Their leader was 
Yturbide, who became Emperor for a few months and 
was then sentenced to be shot. Already the United 
States had purchased Florida from Spain, so after the 



SPAIN IN AMERICA 25 

Treaty of Cordova Spain could claim no territory on 
the mainland. Meantime the present state of Texas 
had been settled by colonists from Mexico, whose num- 
bers were greatly increased by settlers from the United 
States. These opposed the Spanish control of Mexico 
and, after an insurrection in 1836, made Texas an in- 
dependent republic, which it remained until it was an- 
nexed to the United States in 1845. The Mexican 
War which lasted a year and a half soon followed, and 
at its close the tract now known as New Mexico, 
Arizona, and California was ceded by Mexico to the 
United States. 

In these few years were added to our country all the 
regions of the mainland occupied by Spanish speaking 
people for whom our work of Home Missions is now 
carried on. Hereafter the use of the term Mexican 
applies to those people who are descendants of the 
union of the Spanish and Indian races. 




26 



II 

FOLLOWING THE CROSS 



" More than all the pageants of Castilian manners, more 
than all the sheen of Montezuma's gilded courtliness is the 
grace and glory of a Christlike man. What the Mexican was 
and is must sink and wane while the Mexican to be rises the 
new Christ's man." 

"Where restless, turbulent peoples toss 
Under the fire of the Southern Cross, 
A light gleams down the mountain track 
As the gates of Panama swing back. 

' On the South three gates.' Swing wide, swing wide — 
A welcome here for the human tide ! " 

Rev. Charles L. Thompson, D.D. 



II 

FOLLOWING THE CROSS 

Missionary Work of the Spaniards 

Religious Motive. It is hard to reconcile the treat- 
ment the Spaniards gave the natives of America with 
the deep religious purpose that so evidently actuated 
some of the explorers. The names they gave the 
islands, rivers, and lands they discovered show how 
great was their desire to honor the religion they pro- 
fessed. The first land Columbus stepped upon was 
named San Salvador ; another island he called Trinidad, 
in honor of the Holy Trinity; the Mississippi was 
known to the Spaniards as the Rio del Espirito Santo, 
the River of the Holy Ghost, while Vera Cruz means 
the True Cross ; the Virgin and the saints of the Church 
were all remembered. When Columbus asked aid of 
the King and Queen of Spain he claimed he had been 
influenced by reading Marco Polo's work on China, 
and confessed that his main purpose in attempting the 
voyage was his desire to reach China in order to con- 
vert the Great Khan, or Emperor, as well as his sub- 
jects, to Christianity. Still, he stated if they refused to 
accept the religion he offered, any Christian king was 
at liberty to enslave them and take their possessions. 

When land was reached the Admiral appeared in his 
richest clothes, and approached the shore bearing the 

29 



30 OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

royal flame colored standard of Spain ; there he and his 
men knelt down, kissing the ground and giving thanks 
to God for bringing them safely to land. To the end of 
his life, it is said, Columbus believed he had been ap- 
pointed by God to carry Christianity to the people of 
the far east, and his purpose in taking natives to Spain 
was to Christianize them as well as to show them to the 
rulers. Even the audacious Cortez claimed that his 
purpose in visiting the country of Montezuma was in- 
spired by his noble desire to make that ruler a believer. 
Montezuma refused to accept the religion so graciously 
offered, and those of his followers who survived the 
Spanish attacks must have doubted the sincerity of 
Cortez. 

Attitude of the Natives. The Indians of the south- 
land who were conquered by the white man were partly 
civilized tribes. They worshipped the sun with great 
ceremony and some of these tribes had temples and 
numbers of priests. The approach of the white man 
appeared to inspire them with awe, for they at first 
looked upon him as a god. De Soto with all his cruelty 
succeeded in deceiving the natives into believing he was 
one of the immortals. It is told of him that at one time 
he erected two crosses, and the Indians, thinking he was 
about to perform a miracle, brought two blind men for 
him to heal. De Soto did not admit he was unable to 
make the blind see, but instead of attempting the mir- 
acle delivered a talk on the mystery of the Atonement, 
which could hardly have been appreciated by his audi- 
ence. The ceremonies attending disembarking were 
always very impressive to the simple natives; there 



FOLLOWING THE CROSS 31 

were the explorers in their resplendent robes, the priest 
bearing a crucifix while chanting a Te Deum; there 
was the prayer of thanksgiving and the kissing of the 
crucifix. 

The Spanish explorers not only over-ran what is 
Mexico proper today but pushed northward, eastward, 
and westward, even penetrating to Colorado on the 
north and to Virginia to the northeast. They were 
accompanied by zealous priests whose passion it was to 
convert the natives to the true faith. That the converts 
had not even the remotest idea of the true Christian 
doctrine seemed to matter little, so long as they con- 
formed to the rites and ceremonies of the Church. A 
Mexican historian says they looked upon conversion to 
the doctrines and forms of worship of their conquerors 
as a necessary consequence of their defeat in battle. 
The acceptance of the religion of their conquerors was 
as much an acknowledgment of their subjection and 
vassalage as the queue was the symbol of the Chinese 
subjection to the Manchu dynasty. 

While the old religions were nominally destroyed, 
many of the gods appeared under Christian names, and 
little change was really required of the converts. The 
same Mexican writer says, " The conquered Americans, 
who feared everything, and rightly, from the hardened 
conquerors, came to the conclusion that conversion and 
baptism were the most powerful shield behind which 
to protect themselves from further cruelties. They, 
therefore, entered towns en masse asking the missionary 
to baptize them, and in search of the precious guar- 
antees of liberty and life." 



32 OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

Nor was this the only pressure brought to bear upon 
them. Philip the Second decreed that only Christian 
children could inherit the property of their parents. 
As the result of this command an Indian chief would 
insist on the conversion of the whole tribe. The re- 
semblance between the old and the new religion made 
the transition comparatively easy; and in the distorted 
form of Christianity that has prevailed since that day 
among the Latins in our land we see the shadow of old 
pagan Mexico. 

Destructive Policy of the Clergy. The destructive 
policy of the Romish clergy has deprived the student of 
the present day of the key to the history of the people 
who left, in the ruins of their cities and temples, evi- 
dences of a higher civilization than has been found in 
any other part of the New World. The Maya ruins 
and inscriptions are the admiration and despair of the 
modern archaeologist. Edward H. Thompson, writing 
in the Geographical Magazine of " The Home of a 
Forgotten Race/' says of certain ruins that appear to 
have been libraries : " Who knows but their contents 
formed part of that funeral pyre of ancient Maya 
literature made by the zealot Bishop de Landa on the 
Mani common. 

" De Landa, seeing on these old rolls of deerskin and 
volumes of Maguey paper signs he could not read and 
symbols he could not understand, concluded they were 
cabalistic signs of a diabolical nature, and caused them, 
with many other objects of inestimable value to science, 
to be destroyed by fire on the public square of Mani. 

" At that time, the old chronicler tells us, there were 



FOLLOWING THE CROSS 33 

destroyed five thousand idols of distinct forms and 
sizes, thirteen altar stones, twenty-two stones, carved 
and of small sizes, twenty-seven rolls of ancient hiero- 
glyphics on deer skins, one hundred and ninety-seven 
vases of all sizes and patterns, and many other unre- 
corded objects. 

"An ancient Spanish chronicler states naively that 
the natives who witnessed the destruction by fire were 
much affected and made a great outcry of woe. Is it 
to be wondered that they made a great outcry of woe ? 
They saw not only the sacred things calcining in the 
fervent heat, but also that written lore, accumulated 
knowledge of their race, going up in smoke and red 
cinders. Naturally the thinking ones among them 
made a great outcry." 

The destruction continued. The children educated 
in the monastery schools were led out to demolish the 
old Aztec temples. Sahagun, a Franciscan monk, came 
to Mexico in 1529 and labored zealously among the 
Indians for many years. He prepared an exhaustive 
history of New Spain and has given much valuable in- 
formation as to the methods pursued in giving to Mexi- 
can civilization the impress that characterizes it today. 
The children were taught to be iconoclasts, and the 
spirit of the race descended from this mixture of 
Spanish and Indian bloods has ever been destructive 
rather than constructive. 

Sahagun says of the education of the children: 
" We took the children of the caciques into our schools ; 
we taught them to read and write and chant. The 
children of the poorer natives were brought into the 



34 OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

court-yard and there instructed in the Christian faith. 
After our teaching, one or two of the brethren took the 
children to some neighboring teccalli, and by working at 
it for a few days, they leveled it to the ground. In 
this way they demolished in a short time, all the Aztec 
temples, great and small, so that not a vestige of them 
remained." 

On one occasion, the mission children in Tlascala 
stoned to death a priest of the old religion who sought 
to win the people back to the ancient faith. 

Consecrated Missionaries. It would be unfair to 
underrate the sincerity, the piety, the zeal, the purity of 
purpose of the Franciscan missionaries of that day. 
We must remember that it was the time of Philip the 
Second, the time of the murderous Alva, the time of the 
Inquisition, an age of brutal cruelty in war and a worse 
cruelty in church. These monks not only accompanied 
all the military expeditions, to look after the welfare of 
the natives, but often alone they penetrated the wilds 
wherever souls were to be found, exiling themselves 
from civilization and all congenial companionship, suf- 
fering hunger, thirst, cold, persecution, and death, with 
no thought of reward except the approval of the Mas- 
ter whom they served with all the fiery and consecrated 
zeal of the old crusaders. Hard indeed would be the 
heart that would not be deeply moved at the recital of 
their consecration, their heroism and suffering. Often 
they protected the Indians against the cruelty and lust 
of the adventurers who accompanied the expeditions of 
conquest. The fact that their own conduct would not, 
at times, meet the test of modern Christian civilization, 



FOLLOWING THE CROSS 35 

must be viewed in the light of their age; they were 
seeing as through a glass, darkly. When the adven- 
turers had satisfied their desire for exploration they 
went back to the settlements. The missionaries had 
not accompanied them for the sake of adventure ; theirs 
was a desire to serve the people, to bring them to 
the Cross, and again and again the priest stayed with 
the savages when his companions returned to civiliza- 
tion. Through their efforts many missions were estab- 
lished on Spanish territory, but oftentimes the mission- 
ary was foully murdered by the very ones he hoped to 
save. 

The majestic ruins of great mission churches that 
are today found where once there were large Indian 
populations attest the zeal, the energy, the consecration 
of these pioneers of the Cross. 

Second Capture of Acoma. The second capture of 
Acoma was in 1629 by the good Fray Juan Ramirez. 
This apostle to the Indians determined to establish a 
mission upon the lofty rock, and alone left Santa Fe, 
refusing an escort of soldiers, bearing no weapon but 
love in his heart and the crucifix in his hand. Footsore 
and weary he came to the foot of the rock, but as he 
began the ascent of the narrow stairway the Indians 
poured down upon him such a flight of arrows that he 
was compelled to take refuge under the overhanging 
cliff. Just then a little girl toppled and fell from the 
summit, but was caught by a sand-covered ledge out of 
sight of the people above, who supposed she had fallen 
to her death. The Fray quickly gathered the child in 
his arms and stepping boldly into the path once more, 



36 OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

carried her safely to the top of the rock. The Indians, 
believing a miracle had been wrought, received him 
reverently, as one coming from the gods. For more 
than twenty years he dwelt among them, teaching them 
to read and write and instructing them in the doctrines 
of the Church. He was greatly beloved by them, and 
his name with that of Las Casas should be written in 
letters of gold over against the black record of so many 
of the adventurers. The Franciscans won, in a most 
remarkable manner, the love and confidence of the 
Indians, and their consecration and benevolent interest 
in the victims of Spanish exploitation is the one bright 
page in the history of Spanish conquest in America. 
One of the most interesting, most majestic and massive 
of the old churches stands on the rock of Acoma, recall- 
ing the conquest of peace by Fray Ramirez. 

Later the Franciscan monks were replaced by Jesuits 
and the Indians fell upon evil days. The service that 
they had rendered in the spirit of hospitality became 
enforced, and then was laid the foundation of that sys- 
tem of peonage that has been the curse of Mexico, and 
has not wholly disappeared from the United States. 

The Inquisition. The Inquisition was at work dur- 
ing this time in Mexico, and the awful sufferings, the 
processions of heretics, the contumely heaped upon 
them made a deep impression upon the Indians, and 
from generation to generation there was transmitted a 
horror of heresy or rebellion against the Holy Catholic 
Church. This will explain, in great measure, the 
reason why it has been so hard to make an impression 
upon the lower classes in Mexico and our Southwest. 



FOLLOWING THE CROSS 37 

The tender and merciful Saviour was hidden from their 
sight, and in His place there was pictured a God who 
well might have been placed beside the gods whose tem- 
ples the children were taught to destroy. It is related 
of one of the Jesuit missionaries that he tortured him- 
self until he was but an emaciated skeleton covered 
with sores, and when, in his old age, he was mercifully 
deprived of his instruments of torture, he exclaimed in 
anguish, " What means have I now to appease the 
Lord ? What shall I do to be saved ? " 

The Religion of the Mexicans. Through the labors 
of tireless, consecrated priests, through fear and 
through compulsion, the religion of the Indians of 
Spanish speech became that of the Roman Catholic 
Church. For more than three hundred years she was 
without a competitor in Latin America. 

The Old Missions. The stories of the old missions 
of California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas form 
an interesting and important background for all the 
history of the Southwest. Burton Holmes referred to 
them as the " Beacon Lights of Civilization." It was 
just seven years before the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence was made on the Atlantic coast of North 
America that Junipero Serra, inspired by the noblest 
motives, reached the Pacific coast and began the estab- 
lishment of missions for the Church of Rome and the 
Crown of Spain. The priests were hindered by the 
viciousness of the soldiers who accompanied them, but 
in spite of this bad influence succeeded in bringing the 
Indians to a better mode of living and exerted a bene- 
ficial influence over many tribes. More than twenty 



38 OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

missions were established, the Indians performing most 
of the labor of construction, under the direction of the 
fathers. When the buildings were completed the In- 
dians lived about them, performing the duties within 
and without the missions. The life seems to have been 
very happy until the Mexican government, which had 
succeeded in throwing off the yoke of Spain, began to 
covet the properties, which were worth millions of dol- 
lars. The missions were secularized to replete the 
treasuries of Santa Anna, the fathers and the Indians 
departing from their old abodes. In recent years the 
buildings have been restored, but the friendly life of 
priest and people which was a part of the old missions 
is but a memory of the past. 

Beginnings of Protestant Missions 

The Early Missionaries. Shortly after the close of 
the Mexican War, men began to cross the continent to 
the new region of California in search of gold. At 
almost the same time other men began going to New 
Mexico for a far nobler purpose — that of carrying the 
Word of God to the Mexican people who had become 
part of the United States. Many Americans disap- 
proved of the expense of the war and the acquisition 
of new territory, but the Church of Christ could not 
stop to question the advisability of the step ; there was 
a new responsibility which it must endeavor to meet. 
At this time, there was but one white settlement be- 
sides the military posts between Missouri and Santa 
Fe. The great event in New Mexico was the coming 
of the railroad to Santa Fe; before that the journey to 



FOLLOWING THE CROSS 39 

the territory was full of perils. The early missionaries 
were obliged to travel by ox train, taking three months 
for the dangerous trip. Yet men and women dared 
undertake the fearful pilgrimage for the sake of carry- 
ing the Good News to those who were in ignorance. 
The first Protestant missionary to begin work in the 
new section was the Rev. Samuel Gorman, sent out by 
the Baptist church to labor among the Pueblo Indians. 
Little is known of his work except that he established a 
school, using the Spanish Bible as the chief textbook. 
About a year after Mr. Gorman went to New Mexico, 
the Presbyterian and Methodist churches sent mission- 
aries to the territory. 

The Civil War interrupted the missionaries, many 
being recalled, while most of the buildings occupied by 
them were abandoned for a time. The First Presby- 
terian Church of Santa Fe was not organized until 
1867, although the first Presbyterian missionary had 
reached Santa Fe in 1850. It had been planned that 
the organization should take place in the senate cham- 
ber of the Capitol, but the man who carried the keys 
disappeared, and instead the organization was effected 
in the home of the governor, whose wife was one of 
those most eager for the coming of the Protestant 
church. 

At about the same time John L. Dyer made a trip 
on horseback to New Mexico. Father Dyer, as he was 
called, had experienced all the dangers and privations 
known to the daring pioneer ministers of the west. 
His labors called him to the mining camps of Colorado, 
where a saloon or a store was the only place in which 



40 OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

service could be held. His means of support were so 
small that he was obliged to work at some manual labor 
during the week to support himself, and yet without 
bitterness or a feeling of discouragement he continued 
through the dangers that threatened him. No one 
better fitted could have gone to visit the new field, and 
the reports made by him so stirred the Methodist church 
of which he was a preacher, that the work that had 
been given up was revived and Father Dyer sent to 
superintend the field. In speaking of his district, he 
said : " That year I took in Trinidad, being the first 
Protestant who ever tried to preach there. This ap- 
pointment was not taken without at least some knowl- 
edge of the labor, privations, and dangers attending a 
Protestant preacher in that field. I already found that 
it was not Mexico, but New Mexico, the outside or fag 
ends of an old Latinized nation, that had been ridden 
over by Romish priests. Being the first discoverers of 
our American continent, their church, I supposed, had 
lost almost all but form and ceremony, and had been 
backsliding ever since. I have seen men by the dozen 
go to church in the morning and by eleven o'clock the 
same men carrying their chickens to a pit to have a 
cock fight in plain view of the priest's house. They 
were communicants, and yet I never knew one of them 
to be brought to account for violating the Sabbath. My 
prayer is that God will convert and reform that whole 
country. Indeed, it is rapidly becoming enlightened 
and improved in every way." Others followed Father 
Dyer and a beginning of school and church in the terri- 
tory was thus made. 



FOLLOWING THE CROSS 41 

The Mexican People. The new home mission field 
was in every respect a foreign mission field. There 
was a new language to be learned and a people whose 
manner of living was entirely different from anything 
the missionaries had known. Men, women, and even 
children smoked home-made cigars ; drinking, gambling, 
and cock-fighting were prevalent, while education and 
religion were alike neglected. There were many cus- 
toms that reminded the missionaries of Bible lands in 
Bible times. The implements used by the Mexicans 
were most primitive ; they prepared their food, ploughed 
the land, threshed grain, and separated it from the chaff 
like the people of old ; the herding of cattle and watch- 
ing of sheep made the missionaries think of the age of 
the patriarchs ; people carried burdens on their heads 
and made the bricks for their homes of the mud of the 
streets mixed with straw and chaff, as did the Israelites 
in the days of bondage. Because of their poverty the 
natives were badly nourished and very poorly clad. 
There was beauty all around them, but they did not 
reflect that beauty. 

When the missionaries were admitted to the homes 
of the kind and polite people, they found them bare and 
cheerless. The beds were spread out on the hard 
earthen floor at night and in the morning were rolled 
up and placed against the walls. There were no 
chairs, no tables, no bedsteads, and one room was 
usually living and sleeping room for a large family, a 
sufficient reason for the lack of delicacy so evident 
among the people. Aside from the pleasing reverence 
for parents and the old, the home relations were dis- 



42 OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

tressing to those coming from the north. Husbands 
and sons sat down and ate what was placed before them 
while wives and daughters stood back or waited in 
another room until their superiors had finished. There 
was a freedom from moral restraint that was dangerous 
to family life. Whether these faults of the home are to 
be attributed to the Indian ancestry or the Spanish, one 
can hardly decide. The relations of the family varied 
greatly in different Indian tribes, but we may imagine 
that the position of woman in the home was an inherit- 
ance from the Spanish conquerors. They had lived 
w T ith Indian women, treating them as slaves; when it 
pleased the Spaniard to change his location he did not 
hesitate to leave a woman and her children behind, 
while he was free to form new ties in a new locality. 
Women, always the drudges, were looked down upon 
by men as their inferiors. 

Hindrances to Missionary Efforts. — The opposition 
of the Roman Catholic clergy proved to be a great 
hindrance to all missionary efforts, as did the fact that 
the Mexican did not differentiate between the mission- 
ary and the white man, in many cases a fugitive from 
justice, who had come for the purpose of gain and who 
had been unfair in his dealings with the Mexican. The 
immorality of these men was well known and the mis- 
sionary had the same problem to contend with in New 
Mexico that he had in China and Africa, where the 
trader had gone before him. On the other hand, the 
clergy had been without rivals for so long that they 
could not imagine the possibility of Protestant mission- 
aries coming to the regions they claimed as their own. 



FOLLOWING THE CROSS 43 

People were threatened and warned against the mis- 
sionaries as against a pestilence, and, in view of the 
knowledge they possessed of the white man, there is 
little wonder that the people at first believed what the 
priests told them of the immorality of Protestantism. 

The Power of God's Word. — When Mr. Gorman 
was recalled from New Mexico at the outbreak of the 
Civil War, he left behind him at least one Spanish 
Bible. This was in the possession of a young man 
who had been in Mr. Gorman's employ. He continued 
to read the Bible and when he married he read it to his 
wife, who learned to believe in the Book and love it as 
her husband did. There was no Protestant church, no 
missionary to help them, and so they worshipped alone 
until the Congregational Church established a mission 
in their vicinity. This man, who was still living in 
1914, was the first convert of Protestant missions in 
New Mexico. 

A Spanish Bible was picked up on the road near Las 
Vegas in 1868, the finder exchanging it for a spelling 
book. The man with whom he made the exchange was 
fond of reading, and began at once to study his new 
book. He gained some knowledge of the way of life 
and told the story to others as well as he could, in a 
wonderful way preparing the field for missionaries who 
later reached his neighborhood. 

Father Gomez was another to whom the Word was 
revealed. His ancestors came to this country with the 
Spanish conquerors, living in the manner of the patri- 
archal families for three hundred years. In some way 
he had seen a Spanish Bible and was impressed with 



44 OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

the truths it contained. Although he was a poor man 
he determined to possess a copy. He borrowed a yoke 
of oxen and with another ox to sell, started on his 
journey of 150 miles to Santa Fe to secure the Book. 
The ox was sold for $25, and the Bible purchased. 
Father Gomez read with joy; accepting the teachings 
and telling his friends of the love of God, he formed 
them into a group of Bible Christians, among whom a 
church was soon organized when Presbyterian mission- 
aries came to them. When the General Assembly of 
that denomination met in New York in 1889 a young 
man spoke before a group of women holding that price- 
less Bible in his hands. It had lost its covers from use. 
The young man, a grandson of Father Gomez, told 
what a power it had been in bringing people to God, 
and said in closing, " I bless and praise God for the 
precious gift, and I would not part with it for all the 
world beside." 

The Penitentes 

The Order of Penitent Brothers was even more 
active in the days of the early missionaries than it is 
today. This is the development of the Third Order of 
Saint Francis, the name having been changed three 
centuries ago in Spain before the Franciscan monks 
brought it to this country. In America self-torture was 
added to the original requirements of the order. The 
members, some twenty-five or thirty-five thousand 
strong, claim allegiance to the Catholic Church, al- 
though the Church will not allow the celebration of 
their rites within its buildings. Men and women are 





w 

H 
H 

w 

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W 



FOLLOWING THE CROSS 45 

members, the women meeting separately except during 
the services of Holy Week. Good Friday is the day on 
which the religious rites are especially carried out, al- 
though each Friday in Lent service is conducted at the 
Morado and processions are held at night in which tor- 
ture is undergone. On Good Friday is held what is 
called the Procession to Calvary. Several men carry 
heavy wooden crosses bound to their naked backs. 
Others, stripped to the waist, scourge themselves as 
they pass along the road with scourges dipped in salt 
water to make them sting more cruelly. The backs 
bleed under the cutting scourge and men, exhausted 
through pain, fall down only to be urged on by those 
attending them. 

The general idea that the Crucifixion as enacted by 
the Penitentes is dying out is denied by those who are 
upon the scene. The nailing of the victim, or hero as 
he prefers to be regarded, to the cross, does not take 
place, although he begs for the nails, believing the en- 
durance of this greater agony is a glory to him ; but a 
man is stretched, bound with ropes upon the cross, his 
side pierced until the blood flows from it, and then the 
cross is elevated. 

In " Our Mexicans " Rev. Robert M. Craig has 
given a vivid description of the services in the Morado 
or Holy Dwelling, to which he was admitted through 
the influence of a friend. " The building is of adobe, 
with large sliding doors in one end, and with but one 
small, round hole in one side for light and ventilation. 
The floor is native earth, except at the end where the 
altar is located. In front of this table, on a small 



46 OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

stool, sit two men, each holding a stone in his hand. 
Directly in front of the stool, but on the earthen floor, 
at some distance from the front of the altar platform, 
is a stand on which is a wooden triangle, having one 
lighted candle on the apex, three on the base, and five 
on either side. In front of this the Penitentes stand 
facing the lights. These men for days have been tor- 
turing themselves. Now their heads and backs and 
arms are bandaged. These men we would suppose to 
be the most religious in the community; instead, they 
are regarded by the people as the most deluded and of 
the lower class, doing penance not only for the sins they 
have committed, but for those which they intend to 
commit during the coming year. 

" All things being ready, at the blast of a trumpet 
the meeting is in progress. The choristers under the 
table sing and play one verse. The men in front of 
the table strike three times on the seats with the stones 
they hold in their hands, then one of the Penitentes 
steps forward and extinguishes one of the lights. This 
continues until all the lights but one have disappeared. 
There is silence for a moment. Then a large, flat sur- 
face, probably nine by twelve feet, apparently of wood, 
covered with zinc, which in its turn is covered with 
leather, is placed on the floor. The doors in the front 
of the building are closed and barred. The Hermanas 
range themselves about the room. The music is again 
started, and at a given signal the last light is gone. 
From boxes and barrels, previously ranged round the 
room, ropes and chains and sticks are drawn, and for 



FOLLOWING THE CROSS 47 

about one half-hour the clashing of chains and the 
clamor of other instruments is maddening. 

" The noise, the groans, and the darkness I can never 
forget. If at any time I want an illustration of that 
* outer darkness ' I only think of that awful night in the 
Penitentes' meeting-house. 

"What does it all mean? Not 'the arrival of the 
soul in purgatory/ as some one has said. As the 
candles are again lighted, I see one of the Penitentes 
go forward and take from the wall a cross on which is 
an image intended to represent our Saviour, who has 
died during the darkness, and at once the. whole mys- 
tery is clear. The darkness, with all the unearthly 
sounds, is intended to represent the transactions at Cal- 
vary on the Good Friday night when the ' King of 
Glory ' bowed His head and gave up the ghost. 

" After this service the image on the cross is borne 
from the little chapel to the house of a friend where 
entertainment has been provided, and there the music is 
kept up until the morning, when all return to the 
Morado, from which they go to their homes in peace." 

A Land of Crosses 

New Mexico has been called a " land of crosses, but 
no Christ." The people have worshipped for centuries 
the dead Christ, His Cross, the Virgin, and the saints 
as idols. The effort of missionaries is ever to make the 
Risen Christ triumph over the darkness of this land, as 
He ever triumphs over spiritual and physical darkness. 
Only the Gospel of love, preached in personal contact, 



48 OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

supported by the godly lives of missionaries, lived in 
works of mercy and healing, can ever counteract the 
influence of a teaching that has so largely incorporated 
the old Indian paganism into the faith developed by 
the early missionaries. Love and patience, not con- 
troversy, must characterize the winning missionary 
propaganda. Once the people are undeceived, the old 
system loses its hold forever, and blind, unquestioning 
submission is changed into a strong, living faith in and 
loyal adherence to the newly discovered Father and the 
tender, sympathetic Christ. 



Ill 

REDEEMING THE SOUTHWEST 



" There is such a thing as the mirage of the desert, which 
has mocked the dying traveler. There is also the oasis where 
the grass is green and the palm trees stand erect in their 
beauty, and the reason thereof is the unfailing spring which 
rises from the heart of the earth and yields its living water 
to the traveler as he journeys across the desert from the land 
which he has left to the land which he has never seen. That 
spring is the Spirit of the living Christ, Who ' was dead ' and 
is 'alive for evermore,' Who remaineth from age to age the 
strength and hope of the race into which He was born and 
for which He died." 

John Watson, D.D. 









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PS 
W 

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Q 

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Ill 

REDEEMING THE SOUTHWEST 

" The wilderness and the solitary place shall be 
glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blos- 
som as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and re- 
joice even with joy and singing; the glory of Lebanon 
shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and 
Sharon; they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the 
excellency of our God. ... In the wilderness shall 
waters break out, and streams in the desert. And the 
parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty 
land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, 
where each lay, shall be grass, with reeds and rushes." 

The prophet might well have spoken these words of 
our own Southwest. The wildernesses, the solitary 
places, the parched lands have been redeemed to a 
great extent through the work of our government, and 
where habitation seemed impossible the desert is blos- 
soming as the rose. 

It is a wonderful country. The remarkable trans- 
formation of the past few years was seen by thousands 
of Exposition visitors who traversed the continent last 
summer. California, New Mexico, and Arizona were 
appreciated as never before. Much has been accom- 
plished through irrigation and scientific farming, but 
vast regions are still untouched. 

5i 



52 OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

Many have found the redemption of the wilderness 
the greatest attraction in the Southwest, others enjoy 
the climate, while still others are drawn by the wonder- 
ful scenery. An artist colony has been established in 
Taos, the second oldest town in New Mexico. Lum- 
mis, in his book " The Land of Poco Tiempo," de- 
scribes New Mexico by the words " Sun, silence, and 
adobe ; " to another the moonlight of New Mexico 
makes the strongest appeal, while a starlit night has 
been most wonderfully described by a musician, Franz 
X. Arens, conductor of the People's Symphony Con- 
certs in New York. On a recent program he intro- 
duced the Second Movement of Dvorak's " New 
World Symphony " in the following words : " Some 
years ago, I made a most interesting trip of over three 
hundred miles into the New Mexico mountain regions. 
There were seven of us, and we traveled in old-fash- 
ioned canvas-covered prairie schooners, along deep 
canyons, over high mountain passes, through Indian 
reservations, over lava-strewn deserts, etc. One beau- 
tiful night we camped on an open prairie; to the East 
loomed the Taos Mountains, raising their peaks over 
12,000 feet. To the North, South, and West was the 
seemingly endless prairie ; overhead were the stars, and 
in such numbers! There seemed to be more stars 
than I had ever dreamed of, and such lustrous stars! 
They seemed to be suspended from the heavenly dome 
as so many electric lights, scintillating in their brilli- 
ancy and lustre. The very stillness and silence with its 
impressiveness seemed to be pregnant with eloquence. 

" It was a wonderful and a new experience for me ; 



REDEEMING THE SOUTHWEST 53 

its beauty would not let me go to sleep ; and so, lying 
on my back, I gazed at those stars, and gave myself 
over entirely to the wonders of the scene. For a long 
while I lay thus, when, lo! out of that vast stillness 
there came a haunting melody to my memory. It was 
the English Horn melody of the * New World Sym- 
phony ' ; and this movement depicts the mysterious 
beauty, vastness and stillness of a starlight night on our 
western prairies." 

In the early days when New Mexico was received 
into the United States the government established mili- 
tary posts throughout the west to enforce order. At 
the same time the Church stationed her soldiers in the 
lonely country. The glimpses of Anglo-Saxon cultiva- 
tion and Christianity have aroused the people of Mexi- 
can origin and they are eager for education in the Eng- 
lish language. It is to the ministry of faithful soldiers 
of the Cross to the physical and spiritual needs of the 
new citizens, rather than to the enforced control of the 
government, that the progress made by the people of 
the Southwest must be attributed. 

The great region known as the Southwest is made up 
of the states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, 
and California. Texas, according to the last census, 
had a population of 3,896,542 people, of whom 125,016 
were Mexicans; New Mexico had 11,918 Mexicans in 
a population of 327,301 ; in California and Arizona 
were found 33,694 and 29,987 Mexicans. The total 
number of Mexicans, irrespective of people of Mexi- 
can blood who have been born in the United States, was 
about 200,000, scattered over the states of the south 



54 OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

and west. Since the census was made a large number 
of Mexican refugees, variously estimated from 500,000 
to 1,000,000, have come into the country. 

Until recently the Mexican people have lived quite 
apart from the American population in small villages 
known as plazas, where the Spanish speaking priest had 
full control until the Protestant missionary went in. 
Ignorance and immorality, superstition and witchcraft 
have existed and still exist in parts remote from the 
paths of civilization and Christianity. 

Conditions With Which Missionaries Contend 

Superstition and Belief in Witches. — Among some 
of the Mexican people the belief in witches and what 
they call the " power of the evil eye " is common. A 
missionary tells of finding two brothers crying and on 
asking the reason he was told by one of them " A drop 
of blood fell from the ceiling on the towel with which 
he was drying the dishes, and it means there will be a 
death in the family, for about the same thing hap- 
pened just a year ago and our little brother died." 
The blood had come from a scratch, but they would 
not believe it. A poor old woman is generally singled 
out as a witch, and she is said to go around after dark 
in the guise of a cat, dog, or owl. People fear to touch 
anything she has touched, believing evil will come from 
it. Another missionary tells of living next the village 
witch, and the terror of the children when this poor 
woman brought food to her. The teacher ate the food, 
but the fact that she was not harmed did not convince 
her pupils that the witch was harmless. The same mis- 



REDEEMING THE SOUTHWEST 55 

sionary was told by a poor old lady who had asthma, 
that she had been a beautiful singer until a friend who 
was jealous of her voice hired a witch to give her food 
with something in it to ruin her voice. Still another 
missionary has written of her amazement one evening 
in rinding one of the most intelligent women in her 
village throwing stones up into a tall tree, while she 
scolded a hooting owl that had taken refuge there. 
When asked what she was doing, the woman answered 
she was trying to kill the witch who was concealed in 
the form of an owl. The examples of belief in witches 
are not few. It has been stated that probably sixty 
per cent of the people fear their power. 

Power of the Priest. — The power the priests hold 
over the Mexicans is very great. From the earliest 
days of Protestant effort they have opposed the coming 
of the missionaries. They have tried all these years 
to keep the people from the mission schools and 
churches. First the priest warned the Mexicans 
against Protestants as against those who had come to 
injure them ; if a warning was not sufficient, the priest 
exercised his authority, and if that authority was dis- 
regarded he refused to administer the rites of the 
church to those who disobeyed, a threat which in very 
many cases has been sufficient to bring about the de- 
sired result. The offices of the priest — baptism, mar- 
riage, confession, absolution, burial — are administered 
only for money and the tax on the poverty-stricken 
people has been heavy and paid under protest, but it 
has been paid. 

A missionary writes : " Suppose you were taught 



56 OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

that they observe ■ children's day ' in purgatory ; that 
every child there for whom friends on earth buy a 
candle will have a lighted candle to carry in the proces- 
sion, and that every child for whom a candle is not 
bought on earth marches with the procession, but with 
its upraised finger burning; would you not, if you be- 
lieved it, pay any price for a candle, so your child 
might not have its finger burn ? 

" Suppose you were taught that unless you had the 
priest's forgiveness for your sins and his blessing as 
you lay on your dying bed that you would go to hell ; 
would you not get money from any source, so you 
might have the sprinkling with holy water and the 
anointing with oil at the hand of the priest who had 
the keeping of your soul in his hand ? 

" Suppose you believed that your baby would be lost 
unless the priest baptized that child ; would you not get 
the money for the baptism and give it to the priest, no 
matter at what sacrifice ? " 

Another missionary tells of a daring attempt of one 
of the clergy to prove to his people the punishment for 
disobeying the authority of the clergy : " A mother of 
three grown sons was dying. She had come to doubt 
the sanctity and genuineness of the priesthood, and es- 
pecially of the priest in this particular village, and her 
last request was that they would not allow him to 
bury her. This request they honored, laying her away 
without the religious ceremony. Soon the husband was 
called upon by the priest to explain why he did not re- 
quest him to say mass at the burial. He told his wife's 
wishes in the matter. The priest told him his wife was 



REDEEMING THE SOUTHWEST 57 

in hell and would remain there until he had mass for 
her deliverance. The man was rather bold and dared 
to dispute the belief that his wife was in torment, ' for/ 
said he, ' my wife was a good woman/ ' I will prove 
to you next Sabbath/ said the priest, ' that your wife 
is burning in hell/ It became known that the demon- 
stration was to take place, so there was a great crowd 
gathered to see the work. The priest led the way to the 
cemetery, armed with his vessel of holy water and his 
crucifix with a long staff. When he reached the grave 
he pressed the staff down into the grave some two feet 
or more and worked it about until the hole was left 
open. He then poured holy water into the hole. It 
was only a little while until a crackling like fire was 
heard and something like smoke began to escape. The 
priest had made good and told the wicked man that the 
smoke was from hell, where his wife was in torment. 
The demonstration was a success, and the man was 
convinced, and began negotiations with the priest for 
terms to get her out. He was told that owing to the 
aggravation of his crime it would take $500. This he 
could not pay, so he was in a great state. You see he 
was especially guilty, because he had tried to evade the 
established forms of the holy church. His wife's sister 
came to the rescue. She told the man to make no 
contract, but to go home with her and she would show 
him what to do. He did so. After all had gone from 
the cemetery she told her brother-in-law to get a shovel 
and go with her. They went to the grave and opened 
it and found there a pile of quick lime, which, of course, 
began to slack when the water was poured on it. This 



58 OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

happened a few years ago, but thanks to Him who will 
lead all who care to follow, the day of such things is 
fast passing, and the little weak churches and the mis- 
sion schools are bringing about the change, slowly, it 
seems at times, but truly, truly." 

After the mission schools were definitely established 
the opposition of the Roman Catholic clergy to them 
seemed to lessen, but during the past year two teachers, 
one from one of the largest boarding schools and the 
other from a plaza school have said : " We are meet- 
ing with more opposition from the Catholic priests this 
year than we have had for a good many years. Either 
they feel the need of a renewed effort locally or there 
is a pressure from headquarters. This morning a fine 
boy who entered school last week came to tell me that 
his father had told him he had to stop school, because 
the priest had said that none of the family could come 
to church or have any of the church rites administered 
to them if the boy was left in the Protestant school. 
This seems like old times for we have often met this 
opposition, but not much of late years." 

" The priests are getting desperate, especially in the 
more remote villages, and are threatening all sorts of 
dire calamities upon those who send their children to 
our schools. They say the children receive a little 
poison every day." 

Customs. — Efforts to improve conditions in Mexico 
are hampered by the prevailing idea that what has been 
for generations must continue forever. Children are 
a blessing, for they come to relieve parents of work. 
It is amazing how much labor is expected of the tiny 



REDEEMING THE SOUTHWEST 59 

children, and their capability for work makes their 
school attendance very irregular. Marriage takes 
place early, and the contracting parties have little voice 
in the matter, the fathers arranging for them. 

Each place holds its Fiesta annually. The celebra- 
tion is in honor of the patron saint of the village, and 
religious services are carried on by the priest. The 
saint is brought from his place in the church and car- 
ried about the town, the religious service of the morn- 
ing being followed by an afternoon of revelry, which 
often terminates in heavy drinking. In Taos the 
Fiesta combines with the worship of the saint the old 
Indian rites in honor of the sun. 

Ceremonies for the dying and dead are particularly 
distressing. A note from a recent letter from one of 
the plaza mission schools helps us to realize these con- 
ditions. " The evening before my neighbor died the 
room was filled with people, all praying aloud. A bon- 
fire is kept burning before the house all night, and 
there is always a feast for the friends with a plentiful 
supply of wines and whiskey. And the horrible wail- 
ing! It is wonderful that the throats of people in 
affliction are not worn out. The sound is peculiar and 
terrible. The mourner, her head covered with a black 
shawl, cries out until completely exhausted. When we 
ask why they do it they say, ' It is our custom. You 
Protestants are cold.' " 

A teacher tells graphically of his experience when 
going home with the body of one of the pupils who had 
died in the school. " We were met at the station of 
Embudo and had to drive twenty miles up into the 



60 OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

mountains to the beautiful little valley of El Valle del 
San Maguiel. The wailing of the mourner is a cry of 
despair and grief. We were met by nine horsemen and 
four wagonloads of parents and friends, and of all 
doleful, heart-rending sounds I have ever heard these 
were the worst. On the drive home we had to stop 
with every person we met and every town through 
which we passed, and there the wailing was repeated. 
Some five or six miles from the home we were met by 
another band of horsemen, some of them the brothers 
of the dead boy, some cousins, and some friends. 
About one mile from the house we were met by all the 
remaining inhabitants of the valley. The night had 
settled down long before this, and the wailing and 
shrieking were awful. This was the way the people 
had of expressing their sorrow and sympathy for the 
bereaved. We proceeded to the home and the body 
was taken into the room and again the wails of sorrow 
were heard. Such a night I have never passed, and I 
never want to have to pass another one. One of our 
young ministers was sent for and we had some Chris- 
tian services, notwithstanding the fact that the family 
is nominally Catholic. After the services they took up 
again the singing of dirges, which had been going on 
over the body for miles before we reached the home, 
and was continued all night. About two o'clock the 
following afternoon we laid the poor boy to rest in the 
little graveyard." 

The Saloon. — One of the greatest evils with which 
the missionary must contend is the saloon, and, to the 
shame of the American, this great evil is a product of 



REDEEMING THE SOUTHWEST 61 

American occupation. One of the oldest missionaries 
said that years ago before the American saloon became 
so universal, evangelistic work was far more fruitful 
than it has been since. Public schools are oftentimes 
supported from the license of the saloons, and if there 
are few saloons and money is scarce, the schools are 
kept open only two or three months. There is a bright 
side to the question, for people are awakening to this 
danger and in some places are voting it out. Here is a 
word from San Mateo : " Our Mexicans from San 
Mateo voted unanimously to close the saloons. There 
was but one vote for the saloons, and it was cast by a 
poor, benighted American who did it for pure spite." 

Work of the Churches 

Evangelistic. — Ever since the day when Jose Y. 
Perea met the Rev. John Annin, who went to New 
Mexico in 1869, with the words " I have been praying 
for a missionary, and I have made vows and promises 
to the Lord in connection with this work. You can 
depend on me for anything I can do to assist this mis- 
sion work," there have been splendid men of Mexican 
parentage to engage in evangelism. Mr. Perea was 
later ordained, and ministered to a parish that required 
fifteen days to cover. The great drawback to mission- 
ary work has always been the small number of men 
who are engaged in it. It has been necessary to spread 
the efforts of the few clergy over so large a territory 
that only an occasional service has been possible in 
many places, and whole regions have been absolutely 
neglected. California has a large Mexican population, 



62 OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

and although work is being successfully carried on in 
many localities there are large settlements of Mexicans 
almost untouched by missionary effort. In Arizona 
mission workers are laboring under great difficulties in 
the mining camps with a constantly moving population, 
yet not only is there permanent growth, but there is the 
joy of knowing that the message is being carried to 
these roving Old Mexico miners. The influence of the 
evangelistic work in New Mexico is greatly aided by 
the work of the mission schools, most of the evangel- 
ists being graduates of these same schools. 

In Colorado the efforts of consecrated men who 
toiled over the mountains, visiting Mexican hamlets 
and sheep camps, teaching and preaching the Gospel 
of Christ, have been rewarded. Today are to be 
found in this locality as strong Protestant Spanish- 
American Christians as anywhere within the bounds of 
the United States. The enthusiastic annual conven- 
tion of the Mexican Christian Endeavor Societies of 
Colorado is an evidence of the ever increasing influ- 
ence of the faithful missionaries. Texas is in the 
making. The most wonderful state in the Union in its 
possibilities, it has the Mexican problem in a more 
acute form than any other. Bordering on a more 
populous part of Old Mexico than do the other states, 
it comes more closely in touch with the more irre- 
sponsible and lawless Mexican element. There may 
be more reason for race prejudice there; but, to the 
honor of the Texan Christians, in no part of the 
Southwest is the problem being approached with 
greater earnestness and zeal. El Paso is the centre of 



REDEEMING THE SOUTHWEST 63 

activity, but the Southern Methodist, the Presbyterian 
U. S., and the Baptist have established their missions 
along the whole frontier line. In El Paso nearly all 
denominations are at work. Owing to the great mass 
of refugees from Mexico, this past year has been an 
exceptional one, for many have " cried unto the Lord 
in their trouble " and He has given them a hope that 
is not dependent upon conditions in poor, battle-torn 
Mexico. 

Educational. — Whenever our forefathers estab- 
lished a new town, the church and the school were al- 
ways placed at the center of the settlement. Religion 
and education must always go hand in hand. The 
Roman Catholic Church neglected this principle. 
When the missionaries went to the Southwest they 
realized that the greatest need of the people, next to 
the Gospel, was education and they did everything in 
their power to relieve that need. As late as 1872 there 
was but one school in New Mexico. The territory 
was very poor and unable at the start to provide its 
own schools. Even the largest places were dependent 
upon those of the Mission Boards for some years. In 
the larger towns and cities today, however, the schools 
are as well equipped and progressive as anywhere in 
the country, and there is a steady improvement in the 
work in smaller places. 

Early mission schools were day schools, but teachers 
realized that far more could be done for the children 
if they had them all the time, and about 1880 a be- 
ginning of boarding school work was made. It has 
been the policy of Church Boards to discontinue 



64 OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

schools wherever public schools reach a high standard, 
and so from time to time school work in different vil- 
lages has been given up. The total number of day 
and boarding schools now maintained by the Protestant 
Church in the Southwest is about twenty-five, and as 
these are spread over New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, 
Texas, and southern California, they can reach but a 
small proportion of the young people of this region. 

No estimate can ever be made of the value of the 
plaza schools to the communities to which they min- 
ister. Oftentimes an American young woman has en- 
tered a plaza, opened a school and carried on the work 
alone, being perhaps the only American in the village. 
She has been nurse, doctor, teacher, and friend to the 
people of the community. Her home has been their 
refuge, the model from which they have tried to im- 
prove their own homes. She has had to adjust her 
life to the life of the people and win their confidence 
and love through unselfish living and devotion to them. 
A teacher who opened the work at Embudo, New 
Mexico, described her experiences : 

" We often read of the strange customs of a race 
whose language differs from ours, but we do not un- 
derstand until we mingle with them. Thus was the 
reality brought to bear upon me when first I came to 
live with the Mexicans in Embudo. My first week 
was spent in a Mexican home, my bed was made on 
the floor, the woven mattress hard and knotty; sleep 
seemed impossible, but nature at length succumbed and 
the night passed by. One thing out of their custom, 
I had a room at night to myself. Breakfast consisted 



REDEEMING THE SOUTHWEST 65 

of black coffee and tortillas (pancakes) placed on a 
small stand, and the man of the house ate with me ; as 
the women eat after the men, they waited until we 
finished, then partook of their meal in the next room 
on the floor, as is the custom. 

"For dinner a chicken was prepared, which had 
more bones than meat. Not having a stove, all cook- 
ing is done on the fire-place. So I was amused at the 
process of cooking the chicken. It was cut in small 
pieces, and one piece at a time was put on a two- 
pronged iron rod, held over the blaze until done, then 
served on a plate. In order to help me the man 
picked up a part of the chicken with his fingers and 
gave it to me. At supper we had Indian meal gruel, 
which is considered a fine drink; before handing the 
cup to me the man took a drink out of it. This was 
too much, so I said I did not wish any. All this was 
done in kindness, only showing the lack of knowledge. 
The black coffee and tortillas were also part of each 
meal. 

" I decided to cook for myself, and rented of them 
two rooms, one to live in, the other for the school, and 
remained in that house three years. In visiting the 
families the first time, I found them anxious for the 
change from a Mexican to an English teacher in order 
to study the language. The school then became over- 
crowded with pupils, and it was impossible to hear 
every one recite in one day, as no two were studying 
from the same book, and each one must recite sepa- 
rately except the chart class." 

The work at Embudo is typical of the work that has 



66 OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

gone on in the plaza schools. The rooms engaged by 
the teacher gave way to a tiny adobe church building 
for the school, while she continued to live in a native 
adobe house whose mud roof was no protection from 
the rain. The church, in turn, was abandoned for an 
attractive modern schoolhouse containing two large 
rooms which accommodate the one hundred and 
twenty pupils ; next the school is a five room home for 
the teachers, and nearby a small hospital building. 
The interesting thing about these new buildings is that 
the people brought the-rock and sand required for their 
construction, and men and women worked valiantly to 
provide the new school for their children. They 
gather in the home for social meetings and sewing 
classes, while the school is opened for entertainments. 

While the plaza school is an inspiration and a lesson 
to the homes, teachers find the needs of individual boys 
and girls are better met in the boarding school. There 
are several very fine boarding schools conducted 
by Methodists, Congregationalists, and Presbyterians. 
Here the teachers are able to counteract the unfortu- 
nate moral influences by which the boys and girls have 
been surrounded, as well as to hold them for a regu- 
lar attendance, a thing most difficult to secure in day 
schools. The Rio Grande Industrial School and the 
Menaul School at Albuquerque have done a remarkable 
work for boys, while the Rio Grande Industrial and 
Harwood at Albuquerque, the Forsythe Memorial and 
De Pauw at Los Angeles, the Mary J. Piatt at Tucson, 
and Allison-James at Santa Fe care for the girls. 
Holding Institute at Laredo, Texas, is the largest 




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REDEEMING THE SOUTHWEST 67 

Church boarding school in the Southwest. The pupils 
in these schools are trained for all kinds of work — 
the most important being that which will prepare them 
to be good home makers. 

An outline of the schedule at Rio Grande will show 
what active places these boarding schools are. The 
rising bell rings at 5 130 each morning, and the older 
boys hurry to the barn and dairy house to attend to 
their chores. The girls, under the direction of one of 
the teachers, begin the preparation of breakfast, dust- 
ing and cleaning. Breakfast comes at 6:45 and at its 
end every one goes to some regular task, — housework, 
laundrywork, or farming ; each one knows his duty and 
attends to it. This is followed by work in the school- 
room or some industrial work, which is continued until 
the bell rings for dinner. After dinner has been served 
and the dishes washed, all return to the school rooms 
until four o'clock. Then follows an hour's intermis- 
sion for play and at five the chores and kitchen work 
claim the attention of certain pupils. The boys wash 
dishes after supper, and at 7 115 the entire school family 
assembles for the chapel service, followed by a study 
hour and nine o'clock retiring bell. 

Schools necessarily vary a little, but everywhere they 
are found training boys and girls for useful lives. 
They learn to wash and iron, bake and clean, as well as 
to read and write. They enter with enthusiasm into 
baseball, tennis, and other sports. It is interesting to 
note that where new buildings are added to the school 
equipment, whenever it is possible the labor of the boys 
is utilized. Both Menaul and the Rio Grande Indus- 



68 OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

trial have proved that their pupils have been trained 
for practical work. The Bible is a most important 
text book in the boarding as well as in the day schools, 
and aside from the purely religious education pupils 
acquire habits of refinement and cleanliness that they 
could hardly gain anywhere but in the boarding school. 
These schools have given new life to the boys and girls 
who have been privileged to attend them. What of 
the thousands who have had no touch of their wonder- 
ful influence? 

Medical Work. — Nowhere is there greater need of 
medical missions, and nowhere has less been done 
along the line of medical work than in the Southwest. 
A few notes from the letters of teachers will show how 
great is the ignorance of the people in caring for the 
sick and how much doctors and nurses are needed in 
this part of the country. 

" Operations for adenoids or bad tonsils are practi- 
cally unknown, though many of the children have ade- 
noids and diseased tonsils of the worst kind." 

" Treatment for weak eyes or ears is unknown ; 
special care of the teeth or of weak stomachs is not 
only unknown but would bespeak a squeamish fas- 
tidiousness, pardonable only in teachers, ministers, and 
other idle folk!" 

" How we need a nurse ! The nearest doctor is 
eighteen miles away. We call on the sick and do what 
we can, but we cannot stay all the time and they will 
not follow instructions. Then, too, there is so much 
superstition to overcome. Babies are wrapped tightly 
for a month with no attempt at proper care. The 



REDEEMING THE SOUTHWEST "69 

mother must have no bath, not even her hands and face 
washed nor her hair combed for forty days after the 
birth of a child. It is terrible. As one woman said to 
me, ' But no one has told us different ways/ A good 
tactful nurse could do so much. They might not take 
her advice at first, but they do trust the missionaries, 
and we can reach their hearts through this kind of serv- 
ice." 

* One of our most beautiful children of last year 
died early this fall. She was but five years of age. 
She suffered untold agony for thirteen days, with no 
doctor to give her any stimulant or opiate or even to 
say what ailed her." 

" Claudia was confined to her bed for years and 
years. No one knew what was the matter. She was 
' just sick/ She did have one bottle of patent medicine, 
or nearly a bottle. It was left over when the baby 
died of whooping cough. Claudia in her agony took 
that ; but, getting no better, her people took her, lying 
on a blanket in bed in a lumber wagon, to consult the 
most notorious witch of western New Mexico. It was 
a thirty-mile ride in the lumber wagon, and for poor 
Claudia, who had not been able to sit up for a year, 
proved a perilous trip. Coming home worse for the 
journey, her people tried an Indian medicine man. 
The witch and medicine man cost them over thirty dol- 
lars and, worst of all, she grew more feeble every day. 
Fresh air, sunshine, exercise (all abundantly free in 
this land of sunshine) and nutritious food, might have 
worked wonders had they known, but ' My people 
perish for lack of knowledge/ " 



70 OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

Another teacher speaks of the epidemic of grippe, 
the great suffering and only one small room for sick 
and well, for cooking, eating, and sleeping. In one 
home where a little child died there were twenty-eight 
people as guests in the small room for a week. The 
missionary insisted that the men and boys sleep in the 
school room. 

One denomination has sent one doctor to New 
Mexico and provided an automobile for the long trips 
through the country. 

At Embudo a nurse has been placed in charge of the 
new hospital. The teachers do all in their power to 
relieve the suffering of the people in other stations. 

Social Work. — Like medical work, the social work 
has very slowly been recognized as a necessary ac- 
companiment of missionary effort. The missionaries 
themselves have always realized the need and have pro- 
vided wholesome diversions for the people among whom 
they have been, in this way gaining the good will of 
whole communities. The Methodist Episcopal Church 
South has been developing gospel settlements with 
educational and social features in different localities, 
having deaconesses and social workers in charge. 
They have opened three night schools and at their 
mission for Mexicans in Los Angeles have a nurse in 
attendance. 

At Los Angeles too the Presbyterians, and at El Paso 
the Methodists, conduct settlement work with gratify- 
ing results. Women's Societies and Girls' Clubs are 
organized. The members are taught cooking and sew- 
ing, their own culinary products serving for refresh- 



REDEEMING THE SOUTHWEST 71 

ments. The workers introduce devotional services, and 
seek in every way to uplift the people. The houses 
opened to mothers and children for work and play have 
been a great benefit to those who visit them. 

Results of Missionary Work 

In the Homes. — It has been said of the girls of a 
leading mission school that no town into which they 
have gone fails to show, even to passing guests, a better 
condition because of their presence. One worker has 
written, " As I have journeyed through the southwest, I 
have many times entered Mexican homes that had all 
the appearance of American homes, and when I have 
asked some of the friends what has brought about the 
change, why they differ from their neighbors, I am an- 
swered perhaps, ' Why the lady of the house is a 
mission school graduate, or the head of the family is a 
graduate/ and frequently we find that both husband 
and wife are graduates of these Christian schools. In 
Las Placitas, there was, years ago, a mission school, 
but it has been closed about eleven years. Yet, when I 
visited that place, I found clean, stalwart young men 
who acknowledged that the impulse to a clean, orderly 
life had been given them in that school, and the fathers 
and mothers were asking that it might be reestab- 
lished." 

Testimony of Roman Catholics. — " I am obliged to 
oppose your schools; my bishop demands it. At the 
same time I realize that they are doing good work for 
my people ; and if I were a man of family, living in one 
of these Mexican towns, I should wish to send my chil- 



72 OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

dren to your schools." These words were spoken by a 
priest. 

At a recent meeting of mission school graduates an 
address was made by one of the county superintend- 
ents. He stated that of the forty-two teachers in his 
county thirty-six were graduates of Protestant schools. 
He said that he was a Catholic and had been called to 
account by those in authority in the church for employ- 
ing so many Protestants, but he secured always the 
best teachers he could find. It was said that the Arch- 
bishop declared that the greatest menace to the Catholic 
Church in New Mexico was the Protestant mission 
schools. He said : " They are actually making good 
citizens out of the Mexican people." 

When money was raised for a hospital in connection 
with one of the Protestant mission schools $130 came 
from patrons of the school, secured by a Catholic, and 
largely contributed by Catholics. 

The Pupils Sent Out. — As has been previously 
stated, mission schools have provided a large number 
of the missionaries who are working in the Southwest. 
Graduates of every school are filling positions of trust. 
One principal has given statistics regarding his own 
school which are characteristic of all mission schools: 
" Fifteen of our graduates are Home Missionaries, all 
but one doing work in New Mexico or Arizona among 
their native people ; seven graduates and many former 
pupils are public school teachers, and the work that 
they are doing is almost altogether for the Mexican 
people, missionary in itself to a great extent. Some 
of them are yet in college and some in a theological 



REDEEMING THE SOUTHWEST 73 

seminary. One is in a medical school, and if there is 
need for any class of help for the people it is medical 
aid. He will have one of the broadest fields for use- 
fulness that can be found anywhere." 

Desire to Help Others. — The people are not only 
giving of their choice youth for the advancement of 
the Kingdom, but more and more they show a disposi- 
tion to depend less on mission funds. When they hear 
of need in other places they are always ready to con- 
tribute from their own poverty for the benefit of others. 

Our Missionary Teachers 

From whatever point we view missionary work, we 
find the chief factor in the betterment of the people is 
the missionary teacher. Through perils of loneliness, 
through perils of disease, through perils of opposition, 
through perils of discouragement and exhaustion, she 
continues her ministries to those to whom she gives a 
new life perspective — new hopes and ambitions where 
lives would otherwise have been hopeless. When asked 
if his church carried on any social work among Span- 
ish speaking peoples, a Board officer answered that the 
day school teachers carry it on to a great extent and 
" often act as nurses, postmistresses, and justices of 
the peace." It is so in every denomination ; the plaza 
teachers have learned to be everything to all men. 
During the day they are busy in school, but after hours 
they visit the homes sharing the sorrows and joys of 
the people. They prescribe for the sick and nurse 
them as well. They help the bride with her wedding 
preparations, and even oftener prepare the dead for 



74 OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

burial. To old and young, sick and well, they are 
ministering angels. 

The old monks brought the olive and the date from 
Mediterranean regions to the Southwest ; a woman mis- 
sionary from Brazil is credited with having been re- 
sponsible for the development of the orange industry 
in California ; the missionary of today provides garden 
seeds and advises the people in matters of farming. 
There are better vegetables, better chickens, and better 
eggs because of the mission teacher. 

A woman who has been almost twenty-five years 
(most of the time alone) in one of the plaza schools, 
recently reported for the three midwinter months to 
her Board as follows : " Patients treated, 48 ; dis- 
pensary visits, 27 ; visits, 129 ; maternity case, 1 ; 
deaths, o." And she is not a trained nurse; only a 
day school teacher ! 

A missionary pictures her experiences in these 
words : " When I returned after a brief absence from 
the plaza I was met with the news that one of our men 
who had gone to Kansas in search of work had come 
home crazed and with a burning fever. I found him 
approaching the crisis of typhoid. We put him to bed 
on a mattress spread with wooden slats, with a coarse 
brown native blanket for a sheet. You may ask why 
I did not supply this need. It was due to the fact that 
nearly all my sheets had recently been used for band- 
ages. Here he lay for several weeks while the family 
of five ate and slept in the same room. It is little 
wonder that two of the children fell ill and that the life 
of the youngest was sacrificed. During this time I 



REDEEMING THE SOUTHWEST 75 

was spending five hours a day in the school room while 
doing what I could morning, noon and evening for my 
patients; for I had another patient almost equally ill 
who had come sixty miles in order that I might care 
for her. There is no other mission station within 
ninety miles of us and a district with a radius of 
twenty-five miles looks to me for help." 

An officer of one of the Home Mission Boards visited 
the region of New Mexico, and before returning home 
made an address in one of the large cities of the state. 
He told of a missionary he had seen who had carried 
on her school work and gone miles over the mountains 
after school to care for a woman who was suffering 
from a fearful sickness. When the speaker finished 
three women came to him, each saying, " I know about 

whom you were talking. It was Miss ," and each 

woman mentioned the name of a different missionary ! 

It is not the exceptional teacher who is doing this 
remarkable work in the Southwest. The service has 
developed a wonderful type of self-sacrificing, noble 
women who learn to laugh and to weep, to vaccinate, to 
bind up wounds, and to soothe those suffering from 
fever. They are a group of women of whom the 
Protestant Church is rightly proud. 

Is the Work Worth While.? 

When one of the early missionaries went to the 
Southwest, a priest told him it was useless to try to 
help the ignorant people. The Roman Catholic Church 
had been at work for 300 years, he said, and the peo- 
ple were so degraded they had not improved in the 



76 OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

slightest degree. The answer of the missionary was 
that when the Protestant Church had labored for as 
many years with as little result, it would be time to 
consider withdrawing. It is less than seventy years 
since the first Protestant missionary entered New 
Mexico. Education has made great advances, the 
moral and physical condition of the people has im- 
proved, there are many homes where there were only 
dwelling places, and, best of all, thousands who would 
not have known the Saviour have been brought to Him, 
and reverently acknowledge Him to be their only 
Lord and King. 



IV 
CUBA PARA CRISTO 



" This is the most beautiful land eyes ever beheld ; one 
could live here forever." 

From the diary of Christopher Columbus. 

" The future of Cuba is unalterably bound up with that of 
the United States. We have made ourselves responsible in 
the eyes of the world for her political destiny, and the Chris- 
tian people of America, whether they would or not, are re- 
sponsible in the eyes of God for the spiritual destiny of the 
Cubans. No earnest servant of the Master will deny this 
solemn obligation of American Christians to this needy people, 
who have suffered not only from the tyranny and oppression 
of Spain, but also and equally from the blighting effects of 
four centuries of Roman domination and oppression." 

— Rev. H. R. Moseley, D.D. 



IV 
CUBA PARA CRISTO 

Three Glimpses of Cuban History 

The Days of Splendor. — Poor Dona Isabella looked 
sadly towards the west from the parapets of Havana ; 
she had been watching thus for weeks and months. 
She had learned to hate beautiful Cuba. How much 
she wished she had tried to persuade her brilliant Gov- 
ernor to be satisfied with the wealth he had gained in 
Peru and to settle in far away Spain! She thought 
of her childhood days, of the stories she had heard of 
the western land that had been discovered a few years 
before by the Admiral Christopher Columbus. She re- 
membered that he had called it a wonderfully beauti- 
ful land, and that it was not until after the Admiral's 
death that people knew it was but an island. All her 
life Dona Isabella had heard that this knight and that 
lord were going to or coming from the New World. 
Sometimes she had wished she were a man that she 
might join one of the expeditions, and she had been 
sure she would have come home weighted down with 
the gold and treasures of the New World, not impov- 
erished as so many had returned. She wept as she 
thought of what had happened when her girlhood was 

79 



80 OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

over and she had just entered upon womanhood. 
There was a youth of noble but poor family, Hernando 
de Soto, who had gone out with Pizarro, and who on 
his return had been received with great honor by the 
King, both because of his great wealth and because of 
his brave record in Peru. When he had asked to 
marry her, although a daughter of one of the noblest 
families of Spain, she had willingly agreed to be his 
bride and go with him to the unknown New World. 
Men sold all their possessions in order to equip them- 
selves suitably to join de Soto, and a brilliant gathering 
of the flower of the nobility sailed in 1539 for Cuba, 
the island where they were to prepare for their further 
expedition to Florida. Dona Isabella remembered the 
voyage, the music and dancing and feasting on ship 
board. She recalled her arrival and how she had said 
it was truly the most beautiful of lands. It all seemed 
so many years ago, and it was not yet quite three. 
There had followed the joy of being wife of the Gov- 
ernor, the year of splendor while ships were prepared 
for the expedition to Florida. De Soto was to be ruler 
there and she was to live like a queen. The boats made 
ready and the expedition started, but it was not as ex- 
citing as when she had left Spain. Then she had been 
one of those to go, and now she had seen the one she 
loved go from her. She had borne the parting bravely, 
and, with the Lieutenant-Governor, had ruled the use- 
less people of Cuba. She had waited until the boats 
returned, bringing her messages from the one who was 
cruel to others but good to her. She looked with joy 
upon the Indian maidens he had sent to be her slaves, 



CUBA PARA CRISTO 81 

in promise of the power that was to be hers in the fu- 
ture; she never thought that they might be missing 
friends, as she missed the Governor. She never could 
have thought that, for they were not like her — they 
were slaves and had no feelings. And now almost two 
years had gone since the ships had brought them to 
her and there had been no second word from the Gov- 
ernor. She had watched and waited until it seemed 
that she could endure it no longer. 

A message reached Dona Isabella at last. Her ad- 
venturous husband had perished and was sleeping be- 
neath the waters of the great river he had discovered. 
Doiia Isabella had waited long enough. Broken 
hearted, she soon died and Cuba was in the power of a 
new governor, who drew from his poor subjects their 
very life blood in order to gain for himself and his 
King the wealth that was their greatest desire. 

The Ten Years' War. — Cuba endured the tyranny 
of the early governors only to find that each succeed- 
ing ruler was more inhuman than his predecessor, un- 
til the Indian element had almost disappeared from the 
population. The people submitted in silence during 
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, but in the 
eighteenth century the oppression of the Spanish con- 
querors at last roused them and led them to revolt. 
There were many vain attempts to throw off the yoke, 
but Spain, unwilling to lose a possession that paid her 
so rich a tribute as did Cuba, multiplied her soldiers on 
the island. From twenty to forty million dollars a 
year went to the mother country from her despised 
dependency. No wonder that the people of Cuba were 



S2 OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

discontented and in a state of unrest! When a dele- 
gation of Cubans went to Spain, asking that their griev- 
ances be heard, the royal commission listened to them 
but paid no attention to their requests. The Cubans 
were aroused at the indifference of the Spaniards, and 
when Cespedes came forward to lead them in 1868 they 
were ready to begin the guerrilla war which lasted for 
ten long years. The island was ravaged from end to 
end and was finally forced to secure peace by the treaty 
of Zanjon. Important reforms were promised but 
never fulfilled, and Spain remained in control of an 
island whose inhabitants were waiting for the oppor- 
tunity to break out against her power, and to drive 
her from their borders. 

Cuba Libre. — The failure of Spain to live up to the 
terms of the Treaty of Zanjon finally resulted in the 
most formidable of the revolutions that swept over 
Cuba. Gomez, one of the leaders of the Ten Years' 
War, was living in San Domingo in 1895, where he 
was joined by Jose Marti, who had been prevented by 
the United States authorities from starting an expedi- 
tion to Cuba from Florida. With a small force of 
men they landed on the island and raised the flag of the 
Cuban Republic. 

They enlisted their countrymen in a struggle for in- 
dependence in which the undrilled men were opposed 
by the trained soldiers of Spain under the notorious 
" Butcher " Weyler. The rebellion extended and 
Weyler was succeeded by Blanco, who remained in 
charge of the army until the destruction of the battle- 
ship Maine in Havana harbor drew the United States 



CUBA PARA CRISTO 83 

into the war. United States troops were landed on the 
island and by August, 1898, Spain was willing to ac- 
knowledge her defeat. By the treaty of Paris, Cuba 
was declared free, the United States assuming military 
control until conditions in the island warranted the 
withdrawal of her troops. In 1902 the military gov- 
ernment transferred its power to the newly elected 
president and congress of Cuba. In 1906 there was an 
unsettled condition of affairs which necessitated a sec- 
ond intervention of the United States in Cuba, but the 
former restlessness seems now to have subsided and 
for the past eight years the people of the island have 
been able to control their affairs without disorder. 
The general impression of the nations of the world was 
that when the United States once had her troops on the 
island of Cuba she would never withdraw, but this 
country has been able to prove to the world that her in- 
terest is not a selfish one, and that while Porto Rico is 
a possession of this country, the relation to Cuba re- 
mains that of a protector. If the Cubans need the 
help of the United States it will be given them, but 
while they are able to govern themselves it is against 
the policy of this government to interfere. 

A partial, though we believe temporary, alienation of 
the Cubans, caused partly by a misunderstanding as to 
the motives of the United States, partly by the mis- 
representations of interested agitators, partly by un- 
wise tariff laws enacted by Congress and possibly, in 
part, by the activity of the priesthood, has at times 
greatly hampered the work of physical, social, and 
moral regeneration. Cubans are exceedingly jealous 



84 OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

of their rights, and it would appear to an unbiased ob- 
server that Congress has not always scrupulously re- 
spected the rights or the feelings of a sensitive people. 
Even after these years of helpfulness on the part of 
the United States, many Cubans are still suspicious of 
her ultimate design in exercising a protectorate. 

It may be that eventually Cuba will find peace and 
safety under the American flag; but if that day ever 
comes, it should be on the initiative and with the hearty 
consent of the whole people of the island. Otherwise 
Cuba must remain independent, for its strategic impor- 
tance is so great to the United States, guarding as it 
does, with Porto Rico, the approaches to the Panama 
Canal, that it could never be permitted to pass under 
the control of any European power. 

Cuba of Today 

Geography and Climate. — It is hard to realize that 
this island which does not belong to us is far nearer our 
shores than the one that does; it takes but five hours 
to reach Cuba from Key West while Porto Rico is far 
beyond Cuba. The shape of Cuba has been compared 
to that of an alligator. If placed on a map of the 
United States, Cuba would extend from New York to 
Indianapolis, and its territory is about equal to that 
of the State of Pennsylvania. The rough mountains 
the fertile plains and valleys make Cuba a very attrac- 
tive island; it is rich in its forests, and the cultivated 
areas yield freely. The Spaniards realized the possi- 
bilities of the island and profited from its cultivation; 
since Cuba has become independent her industries and 



CUBA PARA CRISTO 85 

commerce have developed marvellously, her foreign 
trade now amounting to some $300,000,000 a year. 
One crossing the island beholds the constant contrast 
of roughly cleared forest tracts, beautiful forests, and 
newly planted orange groves, with the settlers' cabins. 
The eastern part of Cuba is very mountainous, and the 
western low. The central part of the island contains 
the most fertile land, and is the region where sugar 
and tobacco are grown to the greatest extent. 

The climate of Cuba is claimed to be ideal by those 
who visit her shores ; there are few extremes of heat 
and cold. Though the thermometer sometimes reaches 
94 degrees Fahrenheit, there is a breeze from the ocean 
to freshen the air and people comfort themselves with 
the thought that they are in the second healthiest coun- 
try in the world, Australia being the only one that sur- 
passes Cuba. 

Who Are the Cubans of Today? — The Indian 
blood does not strongly predominate in Cuba and Porto 
Rico as it does in Mexico. Porto Rico was almost 
depopulated by the extinction of the natives and the 
dissensions of the Spaniards, and for two hundred 
years the increase in population was exceedingly slow. 
The extermination of the natives left Cuba for genera- 
tions peopled chiefly by Creoles — the children of 
Spaniards born in the island — and by Negro slaves. 
Many Cubans at the present time will not allow that 
any have a right to be so called unless they are de- 
scended from the Creole class. The other races were 
either pure Chinese and pure Negroes or else a mixture 
called " Mulattoes." These last are considered the 



86 OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

most turbulent and insubordinate of all, and formed the 
revolutionary element that caused the second American 
occupation. 

The census of 1907 gave the total population of 
Cuba as 2,048,980. Of these there were of the Cubans 
1,224,539. Of the remainder of the population 185,000 
were Spaniards, 6,713 Americans, 274,272 Negroes, 
11,837 Chinese and 334,695 of the mixed races. 

Cuban Character. — It is not just to judge the Cuban 
by our American standards. Race, environment, edu- 
cation, religion, opportunities and possibilities of de- 
velopment, must all be taken into consideration in our 
estimate of him both in the present and the future — 
for he is both present and future. Four hundred 
years of misrule, enforced ignorance, and wrong re- 
ligious teaching, have left their impress. Denied lib- 
erty of expression, there was little to develop a thinking 
people. Surrender of conscience to the priesthood will 
invariably undermine personal morals. A reverence 
for things because they are old will paralyze progress. 

Howard B. Grose (" Advance in the Antilles "), por- 
trays Cuba as she has been formed through the four 
hundred years of Roman Catholic domination as fol- 
lows : " ' By their fruits ye shall know them/ said 
Jesus. The Roman Catholics can hardly declare it un- 
just to apply this principle of the Saviour to the product 
of their Church in Cuba. If, after centuries of com- 
plete domination over the lives and government of a 
people, we find an appalling absence of moral and eth- 
ical standards, of educational institutions, of national 
and individual ideals, of honesty and chastity, of chiv- 



CUBA PARA CRISTO 87 

airy and conscience, what shall be said of the sins of 
omission and commission of the Church under whose 
instruction and dictation this came to be? And when 
you discover that in all the years of corruption and op- 
pression the Church never raised its voice for relief 
even, not to say release or liberty; when you find that 
the Church had no protest against the cruel forms 
of sport such as the bull-fight and the cocking-main, 
or against the spread of gambling among all classes 
through government lottery; when you learn that the 
priesthood was shamelessly and openly corrupt, so that 
it became itself a source of moral rottenness, according 
to the confession of some of its own members, and de- 
served the contempt it inspired in the best men ; when 
you know that through the greed of this Church the 
masses of the people were practically forced into fami- 
lies not bound by legal or Church ceremonial; when 
you read the long and terrible chapters of illiteracy, 
of intellectual repression, of foolish superstitions, of 
infamous impositions in the name of religion upon 
a hopelessly chained people — it is not unjust to apply 
the Master's test." 

Amid such surroundings and under such influences 
was formed and developed the character of the Cuban 
people. Conceding that they are lacking in some of 
the qualities we deem essential for the highest civiliza- 
tion, we should ask if we would be better under like 
conditions. The Cuban or Porto Rican at the worst 
has not been much worse than was the Scot when John 
Knox worked into the national life, through the school 
and the Word of God, the spirit of his prayer, " O 



88 OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

God, give me Scotland or I die ! " What the Gospel 
did for Scotland it will do for Cuba. 

Internal Improvements Begun by the United States. 
The first work undertaken by the United States 
after it organized the military government of Cuba 
was the cleaning up of the cities. Sanitation was so 
thoroughly revolutionized that the cities became models 
of cleanliness. Splendid roads were built, cockfighting 
and gambling prohibited, streets were repaved, and a 
public school system established. Today Cuba is 
changing rapidly. The old and the new are found side 
by side, but the old is being fast abandoned for the 
new. Each town gives evidence of its progressive- 
ness in new buildings, cement sidewalks, well built 
roads, its improved park and market. Sugar cane is 
hauled by ox team to the mill, where the process of 
transforming the cane to sugar is carried on by elec- 
tricity. Sometimes families travel on horseback and 
on foot; sometimes they use the automobile or the 
trolley or steam cars that have been introduced. 

Under the Cuban government cockfighting, the lot- 
tery, and other forms of gambling that were prohibited 
by the United States were reinstated, and are now pro- 
tected by law. In Havana, a beautiful city in which 
both the old and the new influences are conspicuous in 
the architecture, the Cuban National Lottery is car- 
ried on. Everyone buys tickets, the government re- 
taining thirty per cent of the money received, the rest 
going in prizes. This lottery, run by the government, 
has made the Cubans a nation of gamblers. Cock- 
fighting is restricted to Sundays and holidays. 



CUBA PARA CRISTO 89 

Beside the roads built under the United States mili- 
tary government, railroads, telegraphs, telephones, and 
all kinds of electrical appliances have been introduced. 
The value of real estate is constantly increasing; irri- 
gation has made once useless land productive so that 
Cuba is in a very prosperous condition. 

Education in Cuba. — The United States began the 
organizing of public schools in Cuba. Before the pro- 
visional government was established by this country 
very few efforts had been made to educate the people. 
There had been some private schools for boys and girls, 
but even these were of a very poor type, and the gen- 
eral sentiment was against educating the poor. Not 
more than one child in thirty attended school. Chil- 
dren of the wealthy classes left the island, some going 
to Europe, some coming to the United States to study. 
The provisional government established schools in most 
of the towns of Cuba, expended ten millions of dollars 
for buildings and equipment, sent several hundred 
Cuban teachers to this country for greater preparation 
— in fact gave an educational impulse which it is hoped 
will always be felt on the island. The Cuban govern- 
ment has continued the educational work instituted by 
our government and the island has a large number of 
schools, but unfortunately the Cuban government has 
shown no desire to improve the school buildings, which 
compare unfavorably with those of Porto Rico. 

A recent visitor to Cuba remarked : " I have fre- 
quently made the statement that while I bowed my 
way in and bowed my way out of numerous public 
schools in Cuba, I did not see any school work, as both 



90 OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

pupils and teachers are too polite in Cuba to work 
while they have visitors." 

Elementary work is carried on in these schools, un- 
fortunately ending in most cases with the fifth grade; 
some schools carry the work to the seventh grade, and 
their graduates are eligible to take the examinations 
for the government provincial institutes, of which 
there is one in each of the six provinces. The insti- 
tutes carry work a little farther in some subjects than 
our high schools, giving the B.A. degree at the com- 
pletion of the course. Graduates of the institutes, in 
turn, may enter the University of Cuba at Havana. 
It is unfortunate for the people that the grade of public 
schools is usually so low ; another unfortunate thing 
is that there are no government normal schools to 
train teachers. This must usually result in poor teach- 
ing, and it makes very desirable the opportunity given 
to people in some parts of the island to place their chil- 
dren in the high grade mission schools. 

Religious Work in Cuba 

Intolerance of Spain. — The religious intolerance 
that has been encountered in all Spanish speaking peo- 
ples was particularly active in Cuba. A number of 
English speaking people living in Havana about 1870 
wished to organize a church. They were refused per- 
mission to hold public services, and met in private. 
Bishop Whipple of the Episcopal Church visited the is- 
land in 1 87 1, and, the people being again refused per- 
mission to hold public service, he accepted the invita- 
tion of the officers of an American man-of-war that 



CUBA PARA CRISTO 91 

was in the harbor, and the Sacrament of the Com- 
munion was celebrated on the vessel. Bishop Whipple 
interested his church people on his return to the United 
States, and a clergyman was sent to minister to the 
English speaking residents of Havana. Services were 
held in one of the hotels on Sundays, the missionary 
spending his time during the week ministering to all 
the people he could reach, whether Spanish or Eng- 
lish. Many Cubans, driven out of the island as exiles 
following the civil war, came into contact with Prot- 
estantism in the United States and accepted it. About 
the same time the American Bible Society began to 
circulate the Bible in Cuba, scattering the Word among 
a few of the people. The work grew quietly in spite 
of the opposition of the authorities, and an appeal to 
the Spanish government, following the refusal of local 
authorities, resulted in a royal decree affirming the 
principle of religious freedom. Opposition continued, 
but the Episcopal Church took advantage of the royal 
decree, and built its first church in Mantazas in 1887. 
In 1883 the Southern Baptist Church had begun work 
in Havana, continuing it until the coming of others to 
the same field in 1899. 

February 17, 1898, after the terrible disaster of the 
Maine, Captain Sigsbee asked permission to read the 
Protestant burial service over the bodies of the first 
victims that were found. Permission was denied him, 
and in the carriage, and in his room, he read portions 
of the service. 

One of the first steps of the United States in Cuba 
was to issue a bill of rights, and the second guarantee 



92 OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

made by this bill was " freedom of worship according 
to individual conscience." The fact that the Roman 
Catholic Church was in such close touch with the hated 
Spain loosened the hold of the priests over the people, 
but nevertheless they met the coming of Protestant 
missionaries with opposition. The hostility of the 
Roman Church, manifest in our own Southwest, was 
repeated in Cuba. 

Evangelistic Work. — The attitude of the civil 
authorities during the Cuban war of independence made 
it necessary for the missionaries under the Episcopal 
Church to withdraw from the island, but they returned 
as soon as the Spanish power was broken. At this 
time other denominations realized their responsibility 
for this neighboring island, and a number of mission- 
aries were soon on the field. They have found three 
important types of work to be done in Cuba: that 
among the native Cubans, among the Jamaica negroes, 
and among Americans residing in Cuba. 

The first missionaries were delighted with the way 
in which people thronged to their services. Even in 
pleasure-loving Havana they crowded the meetings, but 
it was difficult to decide whether the crowds were 
merely idly curious, or whether they were hungering 
for the Gospel. Dr. Moseley, who opened the field 
for the Baptists, said of them : " One of the greatest 
difficulties we have to encounter is the indifference of 
the people. They are not a serious people and are in- 
clined to take everything lightly and carelessly. I 
think it may be truthfully said that Cuba has no re- 
ligion. Of course, the Romish Church is the estab- 



CUBA PARA CRISTO 93 

lished church of the island, but its devotees are few in 
number, and while all Cubans are nominal Catholics, 
they do not concern themselves about Protestantism or 
Romanism, righteousness or unrighteousness, but pur- 
sue the even tenor of their way gaily, carelessly, many 
of them going to mass in the morning, on some pleas- 
ure excursion in the afternoon and to our service at 
night. Many of them are willing to unite with our 
church without any investigation whatever. For that 
very reason we must go slowly and carefully, and 
while candidates for church membership are numer- 
ous, we examine each one privately, and then again 
publicly, and receive only such as give evidence of hav- 
ing been born of God's Spirit. And God is giving His 
Spirit and souls are being born into the Kingdom." 

Most of the people had heard little preaching, and a 
service in a language they could understand was in- 
teresting to them; the hymns were a novelty; and so 
curiosity was found to be a great motive in drawing 
them together. When the careless were satisfied, the 
attendance at the services diminished somewhat, but 
the enduring work had begun. There was little at- 
tention paid to the Romish clergy who tried to keep 
their followers away from Protestant churches, and 
homes were opened hospitably to the missionaries 
where buildings were not provided. 

When asked last year if the work in Cuba paid, one 
of the missionaries who has been longest there an- 
swered : " I make bold to express the doubt if any 
field of Christian work in Roman Catholic countries has 
yielded more visible or abundant fruitage in proportion 



94 OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

to the money expended and the missionaries employed 
than Cuba." He spoke of the improvement in the 
home life. When Americans entered Cuba there were 
1 68,000 people living in unlawful cohabitation. To- 
day marriages are performed without exorbitant fees, 
and so marriages take place. There are almost eleven 
thousand members of Protestant churches, and young 
men and women trained in these churches are carry- 
ing the Gospel to their own people. Thousands of chil- 
dren gather each week in the Sunday schools, carry- 
ing to their homes messages from the Word of God. 
Every missionary feels that missions in Cuba pay. 

Many Jamaica negroes have been drawn to Cuba 
by the higher wages, and among them have been found 
fetish worshippers. The Episcopal Church is trying 
to reach this difficult part of the population. 

Work among our countrymen who have been at- 
tracted to the island is very necessary. Some of them 
are of great help to the missionary force, but others 
have retarded missionary work. Freedom from the 
restraint of home surroundings, with a yielding to the 
carelessness of Cuban life, has made it particularly 
necessary that the Church exert itself for these people, 
for if it fails to hold them, it can not make great prog- 
ress with the Cubans. 

Educational Work. — Almost four thousand children 
have been gathered into the mission schools in Cuba. 
This number seems encouraging until we remember 
that there are about four hundred thousand children 
of school age in Cuba. The plan of education carried 
out by the government makes it possible for those 



CUBA PARA CRISTO 95 

who live in large places to attend the higher schools, 
but the majority of pupils complete only the fifth grade. 
The public school gives absolutely no religious train- 
ing, and the poor preparation of teachers makes the 
school work of a low standard. Many parents object 
to the coeducational plan of the public schools, others 
to the mixing of white and colored children in the 
schools ; the result has been that children of the better 
class have been sent to the parochial schools established 
by the Roman Catholic Church since 1898, or to private 
schools that are favored by the Church. 

There is a very great need of mission schools all 
over the island, schools that will begin with the kinder- 
garten and carry the average pupil through the high 
school grades, providing some means of higher educa- 
tion for those who desire to fit themselves for teaching 
or preaching. There are fifty day schools and a few 
boarding schools under the various Mission Boards 
which are now accomplishing a splendid work. The 
children began going to these schools with misgivings. 
They feared that the priest would put them out of the 
church if he knew what they were doing. They tried 
to avoid the religious services that were a part of the 
daily routine, but little by little they were interested 
and were won to the truth. 

The Baptists, who carry on the most extensive work 
of any denomination in Cuba, have opened an educa- 
tional work of great promise in El Cristo, ten miles 
north of Santiago. The site was selected after care- 
ful deliberation, and dormitories for boys and girls, 
class room building, and gymnasium erected. It has 



96 OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

been possible to do a far more effective work with 
the pupils who have lived with the teachers, than with 
pupils in day schools. The Cubans have evinced a 
growing interest in athletics, and schools have culti- 
vated this interest in honest sports, in order to draw 
students from the objectionable diversions that have 
previously been offered them. 

Workers in Cuban schools have said that the chil- 
dren are far more difficult to deal with than those in 
Porto Rico and New Mexico, for they are very likely 
to be impolite, impertinent, talkative, restless, and ex- 
citable. They seem to have developed without restric- 
tions of any kind. In spite of such disadvantages, the 
missionary teachers in Cuba are doing a work that has 
already shown wonderful results in the noble type of 
young manhood and womanhood that has been devel- 
oped under their inspiring leadership. 

Cuba para Cristo. — Over three hundred delegates, 
representing the Christian Endeavor Societies and Sun- 
day schools of Cuba, met recently in Havana. The 
watchword of the Convention was " Cuba para 
Cristo" (Cuba for Christ). This is the slogan of 
the churches of Cuba, and the thought echoes through 
all the gatherings on the island. A missionary says: 
" We have abundant reason to thank God, take cour- 
age, and do more and more for the youth of Cuba." 

Cubans in the United States 

Almost four centuries after de Soto left Cuba, thou- 
sands of people from the island of which he was gov- 
ernor followed his course to Florida and settled just 



CUBA PARA CRISTO 97 

across the bay from the spot where he landed. They 
did not come with the same purpose that influenced 
that fearless explorer, but because they looked upon 
this country as their friend and wished the privileges 
that life here offered for their children. 

At the time of the Spanish-American War there was 
a community of some five thousand Cubans at Tampa, 
Florida. The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 
opened a school for the children, which has been main- 
tained to the present time. Another school, primarily 
intended for Cubans, was opened by the same church 
at Key West. English speaking children have taken 
advantage of the opportunity to attend this school, and 
today are in the majority. 

In a population of 10,000 in West Tampa there are 
but 1,500 Americans. The rest are almost entirely 
Cubans, for the most part employed in cigar factories. 
A mission of the Congregational Church has brought 
great blessing to this city. In 1905 a missionary and 
his wife started work in a rented house which also 
served as a parsonage. This building later housed the 
public school, and when the school moved to its own 
building, the missionaries decided to open a church 
school. There has been the gradual growth that at- 
tends consecrated efforts, and today the church has 
six buildings in West Tampa. When children were 
found who were deserted and neglected, the mission- 
aries took them into their own home. A home for 
boys and one for girls were later opened to meet the 
needs of such children. As the work developed two 
people could not attend to all the demands that were 



98 OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

made upon them, and a Cuban minister was called to 
their assistance. There is now a group of six Ameri- 
can teachers and missionaries who, with the Cuban 
pastor, carry on day and night school, religious edu- 
cation in school and Sunday school, church services in 
English and Spanish, conduct homes for boys and 
girls, furnish play as well as serious work for the peo- 
ple, and serve as friends and counselors to the many 
who come to them for help. 

In spite of the indifference and carelessness of many 
of the Cubans, missionaries have found those in Cuba 
and in the United States a most lovable people. They 
are responsive to the message of the Gospel, and very 
loyal as members of the Church. It has been worth 
the sacrifices to be able to lead them to a better life 
than they have ever known. With better educational 
facilities, better church buildings and equipment, the 
Protestant Church will be able to extend its influence 
and hasten the time when the hope of the people that 
Cuba be Christ's will be fulfilled. 



V 
OUR NEW POSSESSION 



" The Porto Rican of yesterday has a heavy bill of charges 
to lay against the Spanish government and the Roman Cath- 
olic Church — for it was the Church and State combined in 
an unholy alliance in Porto Rico, as in Cuba, with the heavier 
responsibility resting upon the Church. While there was a 
nominal government of fair form on paper, in fact the rule 
was a feudal despotism, precisely as in Cuba." 

— Howard B, Grose. 

" I have no sympathy with the oft heard remark that we 
can do nothing for the present generation. Our crowded 
chapels and eager, anxious hearers, belie the statement. Never 
was it more true in any place or age that the common people 
heard the Gospel gladly than here in all our missionary cen- 
ters. Tired of chaff and husks, these starving souls clutch 
greedily at the bread of life and rejoice fondly in a new found 
hope and inspiration. But still it is true that for the most 
effective, rapid, symmetrical, and abiding transformation of 
Porto Rico's intellectual, social, and moral character, we must 
look chiefly to the medical and educational work of our 
Women's Missionary Boards." 

— Rev. J. Milton Greene, D.D. 



V 

OUR NEW POSSESSION 

A bright young girl was sent from Porto Rico to 
New York to be educated. Shortly after getting fairly 
settled in the school she wrote, " Do you know what 
they call me here ? ' Our New Possession/ " Two 
years later she said, " I have become American in all 
my tastes and sympathies, and I do not think I will 
ever be satisfied to go back to the old life." Still later 
she married a fine young American, and to-day she is a 
happy American wife and mother. The young people 
of the school accepted her at her true worth, and her 
life soon was a part of our American life. This might 
well be taken as a prophecy of the future of the beau- 
tiful little island whose possession means so much to 
them and to us. No spot under the American flag is 
of greater interest to the American people than that 
little island gem, guardian of our Panama Canal. 

Under the Power of Spain 

Discovery and Colonization. — It was on his second 
voyage to the New World that Columbus discovered 
this smallest and most beautiful of the group known as 
the Greater Antilles. The present town of Aguadilla, 
on the northwestern coast, marks the place where on 

IOI 



102 OLD SPAIN IX NEW AMERICA 

November 18, 1493, Columbus landed. A granite 
monument marks the place where he planted the cross 
and took possession in the name of the Crown of Spain 
and the Holy Catholic Church. The town takes its 
name Aguadilla (watering place) from a great foun- 
tain that bur 5: s out of the hillside and furnishes water 
for the whole population. The name given by Colum- 
bus to this beautiful and fertile region was Puerto 
Rico, or Rich Port, and to the island. San Juan Bau- 
tista. For some time the Spaniards called the island 
San Juan Bautista de Puerto Rico. Later when the 
explorations had extended to the eastern end a settle- 
ment was made across the bay from what is now the 
city of San Juan and was called Caparra. Later, in 
1 52 1, it was transferred to the present site command- 
ing the entrance to the bay. The name of the new 
town was changed to San Juan de Bautista, and the 
island was henceforth known as Puerto Rico. The In- 
dian name v." a 5 Borincuen. and the national anthem of 
the Porto Ricans bears that name and is as dear to 
their hearts as is u America " to the Americans or 
M God Save the King n to the British. 

Soon after founding the new town, the Spaniards 
began work on the fortifications at the entrance to the 
harbor, and the massive and formerly impregnable 
fortresses of the Morro and Cristobal Colon are monu- 
ments to the energy and engineering skill of the Span- 
iards of that time. But as one looks upon those 
mighty- walls, and realizes that they were built by the 
forced labor of the unhappy natives, it does not re- 
quire a strong imagination to believe that the mortar 



OUR NEW POSSESSION 103 

that has stood the test of nearly four hundred years 
was mixed with the blood and tears of the unfortunate 
inhabitants of beautiful Borinquen. 

Ponce de Leon. — In 1508 Ponce de Leon was made 
governor of Porto Rico. It was a dark day for the 
hospitable natives when they were delivered into the 
hands of this cruel and brutal adventurer. Under his 
administration the Indians were not only made to work 
in the gold mines of Porto Rico, but were also carried 
by thousands to the neighboring island of Haiti. If by 
chance they escaped to the mountains they were hunted 
with bloodhounds, and were either slain or brought 
back to toil in their bondage until freed by a merciful 
death. 

Diego Columbus. — In 151 1 Ponce de Leon was suc- 
ceeded by Diego Columbus, a brother 1 of the dis- 
coverer, but the condition of the natives was in no way 
improved by the change. A system whereby the In- 
dians were distributed among the Spaniards as virtual 
slaves had been instituted by Christopher Columbus, 
and under his brother they were divided into eight sec- 
tions and distributed among eight overseers to search 
for gold in the streams. So cruel was their treatment 
that at last in 151 1 the peaceful slaves could no longer 
endure it, and there was a general uprising in which 
hundreds of their masters were slain. But like all up- 
risings against the armed and disciplined Spaniards, it 
ended in greater cruelties, and the Indians were not 
only subjugated after brief successes, but were almost 

1 By some authorities named as a son of Christopher Colum- 
bus. 



104 OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

exterminated. How many there were at the time of 
the discovery cannot be ascertained. The estimates 
varied from one hundred thousand to six hundred 
thousand ; but when the King of Spain by royal decree 
ordered their liberation from slavery it is stated that 
there were left but sixty to avail themselves of the of- 
fered liberty and " before the end of the sixteenth cen- 
tury the natives disappeared as a distinct race." 

The Coming of the Negroes. — In the early part of 
the sixteenth century Negroes began to be imported 
in great numbers to take the place of the exterminated 
Indians. What untold cruelties attended the traffic we 
can only imagine. It is said that the man-eating 
sharks that infest the waters of the West Indies came 
from Africa, following the slavers, drawn by the 
corpses thrown overboard. 

Better Days. — Fortunately for Porto Rico, Spain 
had her hands full with European wars and the island 
had a period of comparative freedom from interfer- 
ence for almost two hundred years. By 1800 the 
population had increased to nearly forty thousand, 
counting the slaves, who numbered about six thousand. 

The Freedom of the Slaves. — On March 22, 1873, 
while under the short-lived Spanish Republic, Porto 
Rico abolished slavery. If the Spaniards did bring 
the first African slaves to America, they were wiser 
than we in that they abolished slavery without the 
enormous waste and bitterness of a civil war. Porto 
Rican representatives to the Spanish Cortes united 
with the Republicans in the request for the abolition 
of slavery, and the Negro, who on the night of March 



OUR NEW POSSESSION 105 

2 1st, lay down to sleep a slave, awakened on the 22nd 
a free man. A loan of nearly fourteen millions of 
dollars was negotiated to pay the slaveholders for their 
slaves, and the great act was accomplished without 
leaving a ripple on the surface of the social or civil 
life. 

Spanish Misrule. — During the trying years that fol- 
lowed the restoration of the Spanish monarchy, both 
Porto Rico and Cuba suffered industrial paralysis. 
On November 25, 1897, Spain granted autonomy to 
both Cuba and Porto Rico, but the hand of the Spanish 
oligarchy was still heavy upon them. Their liberty 
was only in name. Castelar said with reference to the 
union of church and state, " A privileged church 
within a free state is an impossibility." He warned 
the Cortes that unless a larger liberty, civil and re- 
ligious, was granted in the islands, they would lose 
both Cuba and Porto Rico. 

The reforms were denied and the record of misrule 
from Ponce de Leon to Weyler was continued, until it 
led, in the providence of God, to American intervention, 
and the opportunity for the Church of Christ to show 
to the world what His Gospel could accomplish in the 
redemption of a people. 

Our New Possession 

Government. — A nation was born in a day, in an 
hour, when on October 18, 1898, the Stars and Stripes 
were raised over the Governor's palace in San Juan. 
The centuries of misrule and oppression ended that 
day with the stroke of twelve; but not even the most 



106 OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

sanguine of the thousands who witnessed the unfurling 
of that symbol of liberty could have foreseen the trans- 
formation that would take place in the physical, the 
moral, and the intellectual condition of the people, in 
the space of one decade from the historic event. 

It was no easy task which was assumed by the 
United States in reorganizing the government in the 
islands of Cuba and Porto Rico. 

Here was an island with a population of about one 
million, 60 per cent of whom were white, 34 of mixed 
blood, and 6 per cent Negroes. The Spaniards did not 
draw the color line very closely, consequently the pop- 
ulation was decidedly mixed both as to color and 
blood. This admixture was bound to cause many 
complications. It is a remarkable fact that the cross- 
ing of Spanish and Indian produced a much more 
peaceable and dependable type than the cross with the 
African. 

The pro-Spanish element was, of course, bitterly hos- 
tile to the new government, and the priesthood was 
even more antagonistic. The Roman Catholic Church 
had undisputed sway for four hundred years and 
every effort was made to prejudice the uneducated 
masses against the new comers. When the terrible 
hurricane of August 8, 1908, swept the island and al- 
most destroyed the coffee industry, the main depend- 
ence of so large a portion of the laborers, the priests 
declared it was a manifest judgment of God upon 
them for having accepted a heretic government to the 
detriment of the " Holy Catholic Apostolic Church." 
It was only the apathy and indifference of the people 



OUR NEW POSSESSION 107 

toward the Church that rendered abortive this at- 
tempt to array them against the United States. 

The wisdom of a military form of government was 
seen in handling the difficult conditions immediately 
following the hurricane, when nearly the whole popu- 
lation was in great distress. The military became the 
police force, and a government appropriation of 
$200,000 relieved the immediate necessities and at 
once convinced the people that at last they had a gov- 
ernment that would serve them as well as be served 
by them. 

The military government gave way to the civil gov- 
ernment established by the Foraker Law of 1900. 

Physical Conditions. — Porto Rico is a gem for the 
beauty of its scenery. Standing on a mountain top 
overlooking the sea, watching the changing colors as 
the fleecy clouds move over the waters, seeing the 
wealth and beauty of valley and mountain, one is car- 
ried away by the wonderful prospect. The graceful 
palm, the glossy leaved mango, the golden orange, the 
soft trade wind, purified by its sweep across three 
thousand miles of open sea, — all combine to win the 
heart of the visitor from the north to swear eternal 
loyalty to " Borinquen the Beautiful." When once 
the tropics get their grip on the heart and imagination 
there is no release. In no other place will the moon 
seem so bright, the air so soft, the foliage so beauti- 
ful, while the ear is always listening to hear once more 
the soft rustling of the palm. The discomforts are 
forgotten, and only the delights of those long winter 
days are remembered, days of freedom from frosts, 



108 OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

days of sudden sunrise and of gorgeous sunsets, such 
as are seen nowhere else. It is no wonder that the 
people love their little island home. 

Though robbed for centuries, with no return, the 
soil of Porto Rico is still so fertile that its 3,600 
square miles are capable of supporting a population of 
three millions of people. Rugged and broken though 
it appears, it has marvellously rich valleys, while its 
hills and mountains can be cultivated to the very limit 
of productiveness. Governor Post had a careful sur- 
vey made of the watersheds and estimated that there 
was water enough to increase fourfold the produc- 
tiveness of the island. The frequent rains will con- 
stantly renew the supply in the reservoirs, and the 
barren places will become the most productive under 
the new methods, because they have not been so de- 
pleted by long years of cultivation. 

The partial destruction of the coffee plantations by 
the hurricane of 1908 was not an unmixed evil, for it 
compelled many planters and laborers to turn their 
attention to other products ; yet it was a terrible blow 
to those whose whole living depended upon this one 
industry. 

Sanitation and Health. — When the United States 
took possession of Porto Rico it was found necessary 
for the government to look after the health of the 
natives. The overcrowding and the ignorance of the 
people had resulted in unsanitary physical conditions 
and widespread immorality. The simplest rules of 
sanitation were not observed, there was no care of the 
sick in hospitals or in homes, and the result was a 



OUR NEW POSSESSION 109 

weakened body of natives. In an address delivered 
at the laying of the corner stone of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church in San Juan, Governor Post said 
that the original walled town was intended to contain 
about forty thousand human beings, and that the 
promiscuous crowding was not only one of the prin- 
cipal causes of disease, but also of appalling immo- 
rality. 

The Porto Ricans were stigmatized as "lazy and 
incompetent " by the first American settlers, but when 
it was found that not less than eighty per cent were 
afflicted with the dreaded tropical anemia, or " hook- 
worm," the marvel was that they had enough vitality 
to work at all. Pallid and bloated or emaciated men, 
women, and children were seen at every step, yet no 
real investigation had been made as to the cause until 
Dr. Bailey K. Ash ford, an army physician, discov- 
ered the worm and its remedy. Soon the government 
established anemia camps, and both American and na- 
tive physicians united in a vigorous campaign to eradi- 
cate the disease. It was found that the custom of 
going barefoot was responsible for its prevalence, and 
shoes were insisted upon as a part of the school equip- 
ment. 

The Porto Ricans have taken hold of sanitary im- 
provements with enthusiasm, and now San Juan and 
all other towns of importance have their water system 
and drainage. The old order has passed, as in Pan- 
ama, and Porto Rico has become a most delightful 
and healthful winter resort. A new race of Porto 
Ricans, sturdy and energetic, is coming to the front. 



no OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

American athletic sports have taken a strong hold 
upon the youth of both sexes, and the influence of this 
new activity cannot be measured by the physical gain. 
The necessity for self-control in training and the new 
interest in the open air sports have tended to wean the 
young men from the old and debasing sports that pre- 
vailed, and a new generation of men is being devel- 
oped stronger physically, mentally, and morally than 
was ever known under the Spanish regime. 

Development of Education in Porto Rico 

Educational Conditions Under Spanish Occupation. 
As a result of four hundred years of Spanish occu- 
pation, only fifteen per cent of the population of Porto 
Rico could read and write. The State left all matters 
of education to the care of the clergy. The Church 
was supreme in all things, religious, social, and politi- 
cal. So far as the masses were concerned her motto 
might well have been " Ignorance is the mother of 
devotion." Little or no effort was made to educate 
the people. The Church dictated not only what should 
be taught, but how it should be taught. The mayor 
of one of the towns in Porto Rico told the writer that 
before American occupation the parish priest was al- 
ways chairman of the board of school directors. A 
priest coming from Spain one day sat the next day in 
the board, and dictated the educational policy of a 
district with which he was entirely unfamiliar. 

Growth of Schools Under United States. — Prop- 
erly speaking, Porto Rico had no school system prior 
to her passing under the American flag. There were 



OUR NEW POSSESSION in 

a few schools, it is true, but no system which looked to 
the education of the people either in self-government 
as in a democracy, or in self-control as under a truly 
Christian system of social development. Under Amer- 
ican direction an excellent school system has been 
developed and school houses of modern design dot 
the island. In primary work the different mission- 
ary organizations have supplemented the work of the 
insular government, gradually giving way to the public 
schools as these were able to meet the demands. In 
San Juan the government opened a high school that 
ranks with schools of like order in cities of the same 
class in the States. The first class, consisting of five 
Porto Ricans and one American, was graduated in 
1904. The Porto Ricans did not take kindly, at first, 
to coeducation, but are rapidly conforming in this to 
American ideas. It is inspiring to see the children 
thronging to the schools, entering with zeal into study 
and sports and saluting the flag with as enthusiastic 
loyalty as any Saxon among us, or any son born of 
Revolutionary sires. 

Today most of the cities have modern concrete 
school buildings, and together with the ordinary 
branches of study have developed manual training 
and household arts. The needs of the rural sections 
have been given particular attention the past two years 
and now every village has its public school. In 1900- 
1901, $435,565.29 was appropriated for the schools, 
while in 1913-1914, $3,014,740.00 was the amount set 
apart for this work. Very little school work is now 
attempted by the churches, on account of the splendid 



112 OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

system of public schools. The little that is done is 
confined almost entirely to the poorest districts of the 
cities. The teachers of the public schools are in a 
large proportion Porto Ricans, and many of these are 
graduates of the Normal College of the University of 
Porto Rico at Rio Piedras, where is also located an- 
other division of the University, the College of Lib- 
eral Arts. A third college of the University, the Col- 
lege of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts, is located at 
Mayaguez. Porto Rico should be grateful to the 
United States for the aid given in educational matters ; 
but Americans should understand that it is a Porto 
Rican legislature that willingly votes the funds to de- 
velop and carry on the schools and that the Porto 
Rican people cheerfully pay their taxes to bring the 
system to a high state of efficiency. 

Religious and Moral Condition of the 
Porto Ricans 

Under Spanish Domination. — Spain always carried 
her state religion to her dependencies, and she suc- 
ceeded in planting the Roman Catholic Church as firmly 
in Porto Rico as in any of her other possessions. The 
Inquisition was introduced by Bishop Manso as early 
as 15 19, and not even Torquemada in his greater field 
was more relentless in the pursuit of heretics than was 
this monster in the pursuit of all who incurred his dis- 
pleasure. There seems to have been no limit to his 
authority. From all parts of the island the accused 
were brought to San Juan for punishment, the favorite 
method being roasting alive. The spirit of the Inqui- 



OUR NEW POSSESSION 113 

sition prevailed even to the last, and the people, ex- 
cept such as had traveled abroad, were wholly igno- 
rant of the beliefs and practices of Protestants. 
Priests were paid from state funds and every city 
had its cathedral facing the principal square. 

The priests were frequently men of immoral lives 
and their hold on the people grew less and less. Men 
deserted the services of the Church almost entirely, 
and at the time of the coming of the Americans large 
numbers had drifted into atheism. The people of 
Porto Rico knew of the immoral character of many 
of their priests, and while it was one of the prin- 
cipal reasons for the absence of men from the services 
of the Church, yet it did not seem to shock the faith- 
ful ones. Morals and religion were divorced in a 
way never understood among Protestants. 

The excessive fees demanded by the priests for per- 
forming a marriage ceremony made one almost pro- 
hibitive and, even in the time when the State recog- 
nized civil marriage, such was the power of the clergy 
over the ignorant peasants that few dared avail them- 
selves of the provisions of the law. As a consequence 
fully fifty per cent of the families were formed with- 
out a marriage ceremony. Often the judges aided the 
Church in this immoral practice. A well authenticated 
case is as follows: A young couple in Porto Rico 
went to take out a marriage license. When the judge 
found they were Protestants, he availed himself of 
every possible legal obstruction to the marriage. The 
girl was an orphan, but had been raised by foster 
parents. The judge said it would be necessary to wait 



H4 OLD SPAIN IX NEW AMERICA 

until the court could appoint a guardian, as the con- 
sent of the foster parents was of no value. When 
the young man protested, the judge advised him, in 
the presence of a crowd of men, to take her home 
with him and not bother about a marriage ceremony. 
It was necessary to go to the Attorney General to get 
an order for the license before the judge would issue 
it. 

Cock-fighting, gambling, disregard of the Sabbath, 
and intemperance were prevalent in the island when 
the Americans took possession. 

Protestant Entrance. — The Church of England was 
the first Protestant Church to establish itself in Porto 
Rico. Even before .American occupation, there was 
not the same intolerance of churches other than the 
Roman Catholic as there was in Cuba, and sen-ices 
for the English residents were held in the Holy Trin- 
ity Church in Ponce, beginning in 1867. This build- 
ing was transferred to the Episcopal Church in 1899. 
Within four months after the Stars and Stripes were 
raised over the island, Protestant missionaries were on 
the field. It is an interesting fact that the first Prot- 
estant church in the city of Mayaguez was organized 
in the old building of the Inquisition, and the first 
native Protestants lifted up songs of praise within 
walls that had echoed with the cries and groans of the 
victims of the M Holy Office." 

Church Comity. — In a large measure the lamen- 
table mistake of denominational competition has been 
avoided in Porto Rico. Methodists, Baptists, Pres- 
byterians, Congregationalists, Disciples, Lutherans, 




Typical Porto Rican Mountain Home 




Public School at Arecibo 



OUR NEW POSSESSION 115 

United Brethren, and the Christian Alliance have 
divided the territory in such a way as to secure help- 
ful cooperation. San Juan and Ponce, the two prin- 
cipal cities, are open to all, but all have not availed 
themselves of the privilege of entering. 

The spirit of union is seen in the tendency to com- 
bine wherever the way seems open. The Presbyteri- 
ans had a most successful training school for the na- 
tive ministry in Mayaguez. After several years of 
successful work the Congregationalists and United 
Brethren joined with them, and it is now an interde- 
nominational school. 

These three cooperating denominations have also 
united in the publication of an interdenominational 
paper for the extension of evangelical work. It would 
seem from the growth of this spirit of mutual helpful- 
ness that there is reason to believe that eventually all 
denominations will unite in supporting one training 
school for the ministry, in one publication for the dis- 
semination of the printed truth, and in higher Chris- 
tian education. 

The Episcopal Church has not formally accepted 
the principle of comity prevailing among the other 
churches, but has been in sympathy with it and has 
largely observed it in spirit. 

Missionary Work. — The Church Boards having in 
charge the missionary work on the island sent at once 
men who had a knowledge of the Spanish language, 
and, as far as possible, those who had had experience 
in missionary work in Mexico and South America. 
The evil growth of years could not be checked at once, 



n6 OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

and there was much to discourage the newcomers. 
The immorality was revolting, but there were rays of 
light through the darkness. Missionaries found a 
people who were remarkably teachable and who were 
eager to hear the true message. The few men on the 
field at first held services in city and country districts, 
covering as large a territory as possible, and always 
having large audiences. 

Gradually the religious indifference and apathy of 
the people ceased, and there was ready response to the 
invitation of the missionaries. Even some who still 
profess that they are Romanists have opened their 
homes wide for services. 

Encouragements. — The number of church members 
in Porto Rico passed the 10,000 mark several years 
ago, and the number in Sunday schools was even 
larger. Pastors have reported a desire on the part of 
the people to make their lives better, and very many 
marriage ceremonies have been performed by mis- 
sionaries for those who have been living together with- 
out it for years. Oftentimes there are children old 
enough to serve as witnesses. 

Many forms of evil have been restrained, and 
Christian men are fighting intemperance and an open 
Sunday. The work of the missionaries is only re- 
tarded by the small number of men and the large par- 
ishes that are theirs to serve. 

Effect on the Catholic Church. — Not the least of 
the wonders wrought by Protestant missions has been 
the change in the Roman Catholic Church. Ameri- 
cans who have known Porto Rico from the beginning 



OUR NEW POSSESSION 117 

have seen a new people and a new church born. The 
policy of the missionaries has never been one of at- 
tack, but the loving presentation of the Gospel; not 
antagonizing, but winning. The American Catholic 
bishop, sent to the island soon after it came under 
American control, removed the most corrupt of the 
priests and replaced them with better men. The Sis- 
ters, who had neglected the poor, began to care for 
them. Schools were opened by them and the Brothers, 
and even if the object may have been to counteract 
the influence of the public and mission schools, it was 
worth something that they interested themselves in the 
unfortunate ones. A higher standard of morals for 
the clergy was demanded by an enlightened public 
opinion, the nominal, though indifferent Catholics, 
were moved to a greater interest and devotion, and 
made a more insistent demand that their church meas- 
ure up to the standard of piety, purity, morals, and 
helpfulness that characterized the Protestant churches. 
A missionary was in company with a number of 
Porto Ricans and Spaniards; one of the latter com- 
mented on a fine Protestant church, when another 
turned to the missionary and said, " We do not need 
you Protestants here any longer." Asked his reason, 
he continued, " Because the Bishop has put out the 
priests who caused such a scandal, and the Sisters are 
opening schools and are caring for the poor." 
" Good ! " said the missionary ; " that is a part of our 
mission. We have not come to destroy, not even to 
attack the Roman Catholic Church, but to do what she 
was not doing. If we shall be able to stir her up to 



n8 OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

help the poor and make them better and their lives 
brighter, we will feel that our mission has not been in 
vain. But, supposing we were to close every Prot- 
estant church tomorrow, suspend the work of all 
medical missions, close all our schools, and then with- 
draw all our forces from the island, how long would 
this reform of your Church continue ? " " Well said," 
another replied, " it would not last long." 

Social Service 

The first missionaries to go to Porto Rico realized 
that there were physical needs that must be met be- 
fore the spiritual needs of the people could be greatly 
touched, and they asked their churches for teachers 
and doctors to supplement the work of the government 
in eradicating the hook worm, establishing sanitary 
conditions, and in teaching the Porto Ricans. As the 
government schools have improved it has been possible 
for teachers to devote more of their time to raising the 
standards in the home life of the people. 

Religious Settlements. — After visiting the work of 
the churches in Porto Rico the head of the School De- 
partment of one of the Church Boards said of the 
needs in the fearfully overcrowded city districts: 
" The only method of attack that will achieve the de- 
sired end is through a neighborhood settlement with 
(i) a visiting nurse working in cooperation with the 
local physician, (2) a day nursery for the mothers, 
(3) a play school for the little children below public 
school age, (4) profitable industrial work, and (5) 
competent instruction in domestic science." 



OUR NEW POSSESSION 119 

It is such a work that missionaries are attempting 
to develop, and only the lack of buildings, equipment, 
and helpers have retarded them. The Blanche Kel- 
logg Institute, located at Santurce, a suburb of San 
Juan, is the most noteworthy institution under denomi- 
national control, carrying on this type of work. The 
workers spend their mornings calling on the sick, vis- 
iting among the people, encouraging and helping them 
in every way. They try to provide work for those 
who have no employment; during the depression of 
the past two years this has been a hard matter. In 
the early afternoon time is given to the care of the 
Settlement house and grounds, business, and prepara- 
tion for classes. Three afternoons a week girls from 
seven to twelve attend the Settlement, learning to 
sew, cook, and clean. It has been found necessary to 
teach plain sewing, for the women and girls who have 
learned to do beautiful lace and drawn work have 
known nothing of the more necessary sewing. Older 
girls carry on advanced work the other three after- 
noons, and at night the mothers or still older girls 
meet. The mothers also form a missionary society, 
doing missionary and Bible work among their own 
people. They have practical addresses on such sub- 
jects as cleanliness, training of children, and pure 
foods, as well as religion and travel. This settlement 
has been doing a great work in the interests of temper- 
ance. Boys and girls, men and women are enrolled 
in the temperance societies, and are trying to limit the 
sale of liquors, which are now found in every grocery 
store. Addresses on temperance are given before the 



120 OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

societies, and posters in the interest of temperance 
have been set up by them. In every club at the Set- 
tlement, the Bible is given a prominent place. 

Settlement work is of incalculable value to the peo- 
ple of the cities and to the Christian Church. The 
missionaries are anxious to increase it, and the Church 
at home must recognize the need and make it possible 
for this work to be extended. 

Orphanages. — The George O. Robinson Orphanage 
of San Juan is ideally located in large grounds near 
the ocean. The girls are trained in all kinds of house- 
work, together with the regular school branches. The 
Orphanage has not yet been in existence fifteen years, 
but it shows results that warrant its continuance. 
Not only has there been satisfaction in being able to 
care for neglected little children, but there has been 
the joy of seeing some of these children develop into 
beautiful, useful womanhood. 

Medical Work. — Dr. Ashford of the army medical 
corps compares the proportion of people in the United 
States and Porto Rico who are able to pay for medical 
attendance. In the United States the ten per cent 
who are not able to pay are largely cared for by or- 
ganized charity. On the other hand but ten per cent 
of the Porto Ricans are able to pay for the care, and 
as there is not a well organized system of charity the 
State and individuals must look after the sick. The 
first Presbyterian missionary to reach Porto Rico 
asked his Mission Board for a doctor, for the over- 
crowding, lack of knowledge of sanitation, and preva- 
lence of anemia were things with which a clergyman 



OUR NEW POSSESSION 121 

could hardly deal. The Woman's Board of Home 
Missions of that denomination responded by sending 
the first medical missionary, a young woman, Dr. 
Grace Atkins. Before her office in San Juan was in 
order or her drugs unpacked, patients began to arrive. 
When she had been but six weeks on the island and 
was still almost ignorant of the language, she was 
receiving as many as twenty patients a day and visit- 
ing many more in their homes. Dr. Atkins found 
that her work could not have the best results both be- 
cause the people were too ignorant to carry out her 
directions, and because the homes were lacking any 
of the comforts needed by the sick. She returned to 
the States and persuaded the women of her de- 
nomination to undertake the building of a hos- 
pital. 

Santurce, the home of the Methodist Orphanage 
and the Blanche Kellogg Institute, was selected as a 
site for the buildings known now all over the island as 
the Presbyterian Hospital. The frame buildings orig- 
inally erected have already suffered the ravages of 
winds, rains, and insects, and are soon to be replaced 
by a substantial and beautiful concrete hospital build- 
ing. The physicians treated 6,000 patients in 1907 
and almost 25,000 in 191 5, while 600 operations were 
performed. 

A great work of this hospital has been the training 
of Porto Rican girls as nurses. The graduates have 
begun a most necessary work on the island, some do- 
ing private nursing, while others have been engaged 
by churches or districts for work among the poor. 



122 OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

Their knowledge of people, language, and conditions 
has been a great asset in undertaking the work. 

In addition to the nurses, there is at the hospital 
a missionary who gives all her time to religious work. 
She opens the clinic with a brief service and as she 
aids the nurse in the distribution of medicines she uses 
the opportunity to give spiritual help. That this work 
is needed was shown by the answer to a question asked 
at one of the clinics of the forty patients who had gath- 
ered. They were questioned as to how many had 
ever been in a Protestant or in a Catholic church. 
Two of the number had been in the former, and four 
in the latter. Through the work of the Christian 
staff of the hospital many have found the Saviour and 
been brought into the churches of their neighborhoods 
on their return home. The Congregationalists have a 
skilled medical missionary who holds clinics in three 
large centers. 

The first unit of a new hospital is being erected at 
Humacao and will be ready for use soon. Sick peo- 
ple come in from miles around for medical treatment, 
over 14,500 cases having been cared for during the 
past year, as many as 170 in one day, the doctor giv- 
ing all the medicine himself and putting up as many 
as 10,000 bottles of medicine a year. 

The gift of a new Ford machine enables the medical 
missionary to reach his remote clinics much more ex- 
peditiously than heretofore. With the new hospital 
he will operate on hundreds of cases of physical blind- 
ness and through this work there will be an opportu- 
nity to open the eyes of those who are spiritually blind. 



OUR NEW POSSESSION 123 

One of the women missionaries with the help of a 
young Porto Rican woman cares for the personal re- 
ligious work at the Humacao clinic. The native 
helper reads the Bible passages, gives a little talk, and 
offers prayer; then a hymn is sung and tracts and 
other religious reading matter are distributed. 

St. Luke's, under the Episcopal Church, at Ponce, 
is another hospital that is meeting the needs of people 
on the southern side of the island. Other denomina- 
tional hospitals are in operation at various points, and 
just as with the settlement and evangelistic work, 
their usefulness is limited only by lack of workers and 
equipment. 

The Symbol of Liberty 

A young man who was in Porto Rico before the 
Spanish had entirely withdrawn, wrote home : " The 
Spanish soldiers are embarking in large numbers and 
will soon all be homeward bound. Then we expect 
to celebrate ! We will have a flag raising and make it 
a day the Porto Ricans will remember. Most of the 
Porto Ricans have flags but they are afraid of show- 
ing them." 

The people did not know what that new flag was to 
mean to them, but as they belonged to a new country 
and had no love for the old, it was the part of wisdom 
to possess the new flag. Whether they were to have 
a new form of government or a new religion, they did 
not know. 

The flag has been the means of bringing blessings 
of which the Porto Ricans never dreamed: there are 



124 OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

schools for all children ; there are hospitals to care for 
the sick; there are churches inviting the weary and 
heavy laden to come and find rest ; there is a Book of 
which they never knew, a Book that has brought com- 
fort and joy to thousands of people on the island; 
there are ministers and evangelists, Bible readers and 
teachers, nurses and deaconesses, doctors and visitors, 
all of whom have come through the unfurling of the 
flag. 

The Church has by no means completed her work in 
Porto Rico. She has just arrived at the point of 
greatest opportunity. She must concentrate her ef- 
forts on the social and evangelistic work, reaching the 
thousands who have been so far passed by while their 
more fortunate neighbors have been offered the bless- 
ings of the Gospel. She must seek those who have re- 
fused, the careless and indifferent, and win them to the 
truth. Above all she must train the young, that there 
may be an adequate force to carry the Word to every 
valley and village and give to all the people of this 
beautiful little island new life, new hopes, and new 
aspirations. 



VI 
A NEW ERA 



" Our schools have done a great work in New Mexico and 
they still have a great service to render. Were they with- 
drawn, the cause of progress would suffer a serious drawback. 
The task that has been assigned us is a great one — to loose 
the shackles of ignorance and superstition that have bound 
a race, and set them on the pathway of progress and useful- 
ness; to train a generation for citizenship and cultivate in 
them the virtues of temperance, truthfulness, and social purity; 
to place the cause of education on a permanent basis of effi- 
ciency unfettered by ecclesiastical control; to aid in the up- 
building of a great, prosperous, progressive state; to promote 
a religion that walks hand in hand with morality and intelli- 
gence — such is our mission and purpose, and we must not 
falter nor fail until it be accomplished." 

— Rev. J. H. Heald, D.D. 

" O, Church of the Living God, come to the rescue and give 
to the poor Lazarus that God has placed within our gates, yes, 
at our very doors, the crumbs, even the crumbs, that are fall- 
ing from your tables. Then, when this ransomed people come 
with gladness unto Zion thou shalt joy to hear the valleys and 
the hills break forth before them into singing. Thou shalt 
join the raptured strain, exulting that the Lord, Jehovah, God 
Omnipotent doth reign over all the earth." 



VI 

A NEW ERA 

It is desirable to summarize briefly the work among 
our Spanish speaking peoples as a whole. They are 
scattered over a large territory touching the Pacific 
Ocean on the west, Mexico on the south, and reaching 
far out into the Atlantic and number about three and 
a half millions of people. These people, with the ex- 
ception of the Cubans, are a part of our own country, 
though many of them born under the flag are in ig- 
norance of the vital principles of a free government. 
Where the Gospel has penetrated there has come light 
and understanding; where it has been withheld there 
has been no change from the former degradation and 
decay. 

Missionary Work Among Spanish Speaking 

Peoples 

Evangelistic Results. — In all the regions where mis- 
sionaries are working among the Spanish speaking 
people there has been evinced a great readiness to 
hear the Gospel preached. Children in the Sunday 
schools, young people in their organizations, and old 
and young in the churches have responded with eager- 
ness to the invitation that has been offered. That the 
net result in church members is no greater is due only 

127 



128 OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

to the fact that the missionary force is not large 
enough to touch more than a part of the field. 

Bible readers have proven to be a great help to the 
evangelistic work. Going from home to home, they 
have the opportunity not only of leaving portions of 
the Scriptures and reading them to the people, but of 
being able to come into close touch with family life, 
to receive the confidence of the people, and to help 
them to improve their surroundings. 

Educational Results. — The percentage of illiteracy 
has been greatly reduced in all the fields, in large part 
due to the work of the government of course, but the 
Protestant Church through its missionaries has always 
encouraged education, and supplemented the work of 
the authorities. Wherever the public school is of good 
standard, the Church withdraws its mission school, 
concentrating its efforts on more needy points. The 
boarding schools have been of the greatest value in 
carrying on the work of the Church, for in them are 
gathered and trained the young men and women who go 
to higher institutions for special training or return to 
do school or community work for their own people. 

Medical and Social Work. — The Church has not 
felt it necessary to open medical work in Cuba, for 
the general physical condition of the people is good, 
and the Cuban government cares for hospital work in 
a satisfactory manner. In Porto Rico, however, the 
medical mission has been a great aid to evangelistic 
work. That it has been appreciated by the people has 
been demonstrated hundreds of times. A man visited 
the hospital at San Juan recently asking for a bed for 



A NEW ERA 129 

his sick child, only to find there was no place for him. 
Again he asked if there was a place in the private 
building for his brother, who was very ill. There was 
no place there, and the attendant told him of the pros- 
pect of a new plant from which it was hoped it would 
not be necessary to turn people away. His answer 
was : " Well, if you have a hospital containing two 
hundred beds they will always be full, and there will 
be lots of people waiting for beds yet." 

To the medical mission must be given the credit of 
carrying the Gospel of healing into the most hope- 
lessly poverty-stricken homes. The government has 
wrought wonders in banishing yellow fever and other 
tropical scourges from the islands and the isthmus, but 
the Protestant medical missionary has sought out the 
poor in their homes, has opened hospitals and clinics 
for those who were financially unable to secure treat- 
ment elsewhere, has taught them to observe sanitary 
laws, and above all has pointed them to the Great 
Physician who heals both body and soul. 

During the past year one denomination made a be- 
ginning of medical missionary work in the Southwest. 
The " Brooklyn Hospital " at Embudo, New Mexico, 
with its ten beds under the care of a missionary nurse, 
will be a blessing to many sick. A building for dis- 
pensary use has been added to one of the missions, 
where a teacher who has been on the field for years 
will be able to care for the sick who come to her for 
every need. A district nurse has been added in an- 
other mission. 

In addition to the work of the nurses, one mission- 



130 OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

ary doctor has been sent to New Mexico. It has been 
deemed best to have him locate at some distance from 
the nurses who are ministering to the people, and he 
has been stationed in a field which will include a popu- 
lation of two thousand in fourteen plazas. This has 
been named the " Rincones Medical Station." The 
doctor has been provided with an automobile in order 
that he may extend his field of usefulness. He is fif- 
teen miles from the " Brooklyn Hospital " and twenty- 
five miles from the nearest doctor. 

Social work as undertaken by the Church has filled 
an important place among missionary activities. 
Wherever schools have been closed there has remained 
the opportunity to carry on a much needed work in the 
homes. This is being done through institutions like 
the Blanche Kellogg Institute in Porto Rico, in 
crowded city communities, and in the lonely little Mexi- 
can plazas. The missionaries work largely with the 
children, but reach the homes through the children 
and exert their energies to improve home conditions. 
They lead sewing and cooking classes for mothers as 
well as daughters, plan wholesome social diversions for 
the young, provide a home that is ever open for the peo- 
ple who wish to enter it and a model for those who are 
inspired to make their own homes better. The workers 
perform the duties of doctors, nurses, dentists, seam- 
stresses, or any other work they are called upon to do. 

General Results 

Awakened Peoples. — Among the Mexican people 
in earlier years there was a dulness, an indifference, 




Modern Mission School in the Southwest 




Day Nursery in Porto Rico 



A NEW ERA 131 

an acceptance of what came, without any attempt to 
better conditions. The same qualities have existed to 
a greater or less degree among the other Spanish 
speaking peoples. They have been somewhat roused 
from this apathy, and today instead of basking in 
the sunshine and leaving the duties of today for a 
more auspicious tomorrow, great numbers of these 
people have been awakened by education and religion to 
the desire to make themselves more efficient men and 
women. The numbers of professional and trades peo- 
ple who have graduated from our schools are a proof 
of this statement. Life has attained a definite pur- 
pose where it had been colorless. The war in Mexico 
with all its horror, ruin, and bloodshed, has been a 
powerful factor in rousing the Mexicans in America 
to a realization of what it means to belong to this 
country. The young men and women who have lived 
so long under our institutions without becoming in 
reality a part of our national life, cannot help con- 
trasting their condition with that of those of their 
blood on the other side of the line. In Colorado and 
New Mexico they are calling themselves no longer 
Mexicans, but Americans, with all the pride and sense 
of responsibility of citizenship. 

A Christian Sabbath.— Protestant missions have 
given to Spanish America a truly Christian Sabbath. 
The old Sabbath meant mass in the morning and the 
rest of the day spent in sports, bull-fighting, cock- 
fighting, gambling, and drinking. Usually the laborers 
devoted Monday to recovering from Sunday's debauch. 
Wherever a Protestant congregation has been formed, 



132 OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

there the Christian Sabbath is observed, and its influ- 
ence is rapidly modifying the character of the Romish 
Sabbath. 

Family prayer was quite unknown among the 
Spanish-Americans before the advent of the Protes- 
tant Church. A young lady from a prominent Roman 
Catholic family in Porto Rico went for a short visit 
to the home of a Protestant missionary. After 
breakfast they had family prayers, and when they 
rose from their knees the young lady turned to the 
missionary, and with tears in her eyes said, "You 
have a beautiful custom in your home." Later the 
missionary dined with her people, and as they gath- 
ered at the table the mother said to him, " Anita tells 
me you are accustomed to ask a blessing at the table ; 
will you do it here ? " So little by little the influence 
of the missionaries is gaining in the homes, cleanliness 
and godliness going hand in hand and transforming 
the home life. 

Comity. — There has been a great gain to the home 
Church through these Spanish-American missions in 
the growth of the spirit of comity among the different 
missionary organizations. In Cuba and Porto Rico 
there has been a fair division of the field among these 
groups, and for the most part there is an honest keep- 
ing of the compact. Human nature causes discord 
now and then, but the spirit of comity is growing. A 
closer cooperation in education, in training schools, 
and in publications indicates the approach of the day 
when all will work in perfect harmony and waste will 
be eliminated. The aim set by the Panama Confer- 



A NEW ERA 133 

ence of 1916 pointed toward the withdrawal of some 
denominations from Cuba and Porto Rico, and the 
elimination of distinctive denominational emphasis, 
leading to the use of the general name of the " Evan- 
gelical Church." This aim may not be realized, but it 
is a step toward the unity that is so desirable among 
Spanish- Americans. 

In the southwest of the United States there is an 
Interdenominational Council that meets once a year to 
take up and consider all questions that have to do with 
the work among the Mexicans in the United States. 
There are snags in the stream and there are differ- 
ences of opinion, but the end is being gained. 

Larger Aims for the Future 

r A Better Understanding of the Spanish-Americans, 
There is needed a better understanding of the Span- 
ish-American people. Jhe assumption of undoubted 
superiority in intellect and morals on the part of the 
Saxon has been a constant barrier to a better under- 
standing and closer relation between the two races. 

Few Saxons ever get into either the mind or heart 
of the Latins. L The assumption of racial superiority 
has often led to a degrading patronage, and the very 
men who should stand erect in the presence of God 
and men, who should radiate the spirit of freedom and 
independence have been pauperized. 

For keenness of intellect, for energy and courage, 
the men who pushed out into the unknown, crossed 
hitherto untravelled seas, found a new world, burned 
their ships that there might be no possibility of retreat, 



134 - OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

and then with their handful conquered that world, 
need fear comparison with no race that lives or has 
lived 

A leader in Latin America must acquire the faculty 
of seeing things from the Latin point of view. Just 
here is where the Saxon missionaries have failed. Lat- 
ins and Saxons do not see things through the same eyes. 
One great mistake made in mission work among both 
Latins and Orientals is the insistence that they con- 
form to our way of thinking and seeing. Their think- 
ing men are keen students of philosophy and keep 
abreast of the developments of science, and it is. use- 
less to get them to come down to what may be termed 
"pious patter." Dr. George Knox said of the mis- 
sionary to Oriental lands : " If the missionary is to 
succeed, to aid in making the new civilization Chris- 
tian, he must have a threefold training: first, he must 
intelligently and sympathetically enter into the spirit of 
the modern scientific world; second, he must under- 
stand the civilization of the land to which he goes; 
third, he must disentangle the essential truths of Chris- 
tianity and Occidental forms and accidental accre- 
tions." 

The Latin mind is essentially Oriental, and what 
Dr. Knox has said applies with equal force to Latin 
America. To know the mind of God is the first re- 
quisite of the missionary, but next to that must come 
a knowledge of the mind of the people over whom he 
shall be placed by the Holy Spirit. 

Need of a Better Knowledge of Spanish.- — One of 
the great needs of missionary workers among Latin 



A NEW ERA" 135 

Americans is a better knowledge of the Spanish lan- 
guage and its literature. This is as necessary in Cuba, 
Porto Rico, and the Southwest as in South America, 
and it has been an unfortunate fact that many who 
have undertaken work in American parishes which has 
brought them into contact with Spanish speaking peo- 
ple have made no effort to learn the language. There 
are those who have ministered year after year to a 
handful of Americans and who are surrounded by far 
greater numbers of Mexicans who know not the Christ, 
and yet, with the tremendous opportunity presented to 
them, have made no effort to learn the language that 
would make it possible for them to save those who are 
dying in ignorance. In the day when business men in 
all parts of the country are exerting themselves to ac- 
quire Spanish for commercial purposes, should not the 
religious worker who will be able to touch the spiritual 
nature of these people make a like effort? 

The translations of Scripture and hymns into Span- 
ish have received severe criticism from those who 
work among Spanish-Americans, on the ground that 
they are of no literary value, and cannot appeal to edu- 
cated people. 

As well as a better knowledge of the Spanish lan- 
guage, there is needed a better knowledge of Spanish 
history in the New World. To understand the Mexi- 
can, the Porto Rican, and the Cuban, his historical 
background must be appreciated, for the history of his 
people has greatly affected him personally. 

Better Knowledge of Mexicans in United States. — > 
The people of America are more ignorant of the 



136 OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

needs and conditions of the Mexicans in the United 
States than of the people of any other part of the 
globe. When the great Christian Endeavor conven- 
tion met in Los Angeles in the midst of thousands of 
Mexicans, representatives of various nations were 
called upon to rise and show their numbers ; the leader 
had to be reminded of the Mexican people, and was 
amazed at their numbers when he called upon them, 
saying he had not expected to find them in attendance. 
A conference on work among the immigrants was 
called in the same city, and in spite of their being 
40,000 strong in Los Angeles, Mexicans had not been 
included in the list of immigrants who were to be con- 
sidered. In the same region the recent Laymen's 
Missionary Convention had no place on its program 
for the consideration of the varied needs of this peo- 
ple. 

Some day the story of the great Southwest will be 
heard; the story of the heroism and sacrifices of the 
Franciscans, their great work for the natives, and the 
reason why their work did not abide; the story of a 
patient and uncomplaining people, little understood, 
but capable of great things. One who has had their 
interests at heart for years has said " Were I a younger 
man I would make the world hear that story, and 
arouse the Church to a sense of the wonderful oppor- 
tunity we now have of doing the greatest missionary 
work of the century." 

Leaders of Their Own People. — The leaders of 
Spanish America must come from their own race and 
be of their own thought and speech. Steiner says, 



A NEW ERA 137 

" Blood is thicker than water, but language is thicker 
than blood." 

No alien can get into the most intimate life of the 
Latins, but the alien in blood may be so bound to them 
by spiritual and sympathetic ties as to be helpful in 
the development of a leadership from among their own 
people. To do this he must meet them in the spirit of 
brotherhood and service, not lordship. The object of 
our mission is not to get them to follow us, but to 
train them to lead others to Christ. Little progress 
can be made in spiritual development except through 
leaders who can enter into the secret place of their life 
and character. 

That it is possible to train young men for the re- 
ligious leadership of their people has been proved in 
individual cases on all the fields. In New Mexico 
young men trained in the mission schools have been 
wonderfully successful in leading others of their peo- 
ple to accept the Saviour. The past winter the prin- 
cipal of one of the New Mexico schools wrote of the 
work accomplished by two of their graduates with ad- 
miration : " Last year and this our evangelistic 
meetings have been conducted by two of our former 
pupils. As a result of the ten days of meetings with 
the earnest gospel messages, twelve have united with 
the church and forty-four have confessed faith in 
Christ. Most of these are from homes of early mis- 
sion school pupils. I have many friends in the min- 
istry and two brothers, but do not know any in whom 
I have more confidence and for whom I have greater 
love than these two young men, now evangelists to 



138 OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

their own people. I am more convinced than ever be- 
fore that the way to lead the Spanish- Americans to a 
knowledge of the Christ is through the mission 
schools, and through these splendid Christian workers 
who are developed in them." 

Educational Work. — That educational work for the 
Spanish speaking people is far from satisfactory must 
be confessed by all. The splendid public school sys- 
tem of Porto Rico has relieved the missionaries of 
the need of dealing with the matter of secondary edu- 
cation, but there is still need of better training of 
leaders for work as pastors, teachers, Bible readers, 
and visitors. Such a work undertaken interdenomi- 
nationally to a greater extent than is now done would 
greatly multiply results among the people. In Cuba 
and New Mexico the education of those in cities and 
large towns is well provided for by the authorities, 
but the children in smaller places surfer from inade- 
quate school facilities. Neither do public schools give 
the religious and moral training that the children of 
these people do not get in their homes, so the educa- 
tional work of the government must be supplemented 
by the mission work in order that the highest needs of 
the children may be met. Cuba particularly stands in 
need of far greater missionary effort along the lines of 
education. 

More Work for the Homes. — Throughout the mis- 
sion fields Workers are found using their utmost 
strength in their endeavors to raise the standards of 
family life. Home has seldom been a pleasant place, 
and family relations have not been held sacred. Mis- 



A NEW ERA 139 

sionaries who have been engaged in teaching have been 
able to improve conditions to a great extent, but if the 
home, the citadel of family life, is to be permanently 
strengthened there must be more Bible women, more 
district nurses, and more settlement workers whose 
primary duty it is to go into the homes. It is a most 
important work that women be taught to make home 
attractive to the men and children of the family, for 
to the average Spanish- American home is the place 
where he occasionally eats and sleeps. A real home 
would tend to make husbands more faithful and 
woman's lot brighter. There are occasional homes 
that are worthy of the name -— the homes of women 
who have been trained in mission schools. When these 
are more numerous a great impulse will be given to all 
missionary work. 

Extension of Medical Work. — Medical missions in 
Porto Rico have been the pride of the Church. In 
Cuba, as has been stated, there has been no great need 
of these. The Southwest, with its vast regions with- 
out any medical attendance except that given by the few 
scattered teachers, must appeal to all as a needy field 
for this branch of missionary work. 

Far more medical work is needed in Porto Rico than 
is carried on today by the churches, and the need of 
an extension of this ministry in the Southwest is im- 
perative. There is now one medical missionary, and 
there are hundreds of lonely little plazas without any 
medical assistance. It is not fair to the missionaries 
who go to this region to teach and preach that they 
should be compelled, in addition to their other duties, 



140 OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

to bear the burden of caring for those who are desper- 
ately sick. No field at home or abroad is in greater 
need of doctors and nurses than this Southwest region. 

Opportunity God's Call to Action 

The Call to Cuba and Porto Rico Answered. — 
When Cuba and Porto Rico entered into their present 
relations with the United States, the churches of the 
country did not doubt that a call had come to them, 
and in a reverent and statesman-like way planned a 
definite method of facing the problems confronting 
them on the new fields. Though the work has been 
limited to a great degree by the small number engaged 
in it, there has been satisfaction over the results at- 
tained. These islands are situated between the two 
Americas, and stand in a direct line of travel between 
the Canal Zone and European trade. Their location 
is strategic from a commercial point of view, and with 
the results of missionary work, they will be strategi- 
cally located from a religious point of view. The home 
mission work accomplished in these islands is destined 
to be a great foreign mission asset. Edward A. Odell 
of Porto Rico speaks of the hopes and the immediate 
needs of the island of Porto Rico in these words : 
"As the Porto Rican is looking forward to the time 
when he will have entire control of his own govern- 
ment, just so the native church is looking forward to 
the time when she will be able to support herself and 
indeed be able to pass the gospel along to the south. 
But this day must be necessarily delayed if, when mis- 
sions are opened and the work is prospering, we are 



A NEW ERA 141 

forced to retrench because our ranks, depleted by sick- 
ness, cannot be filled by men able and willing to bear 
the burden — if burden it be. I could tell you of some 
of the Porto Ricans who, mindful of the sacrifice made 
by the church for their country, are now nobly giving 
their services to this work. Let the peculiar, unique, 
and immediate need of this island speak now, and do 
not falter in stretching forth the hand to sow while the 
soil is waiting for the seed." 

Home Missions Our Defense. — Americans have al- 
ways believed in the gospel of preparedness. Wher- 
ever a mining camp was opened, there was found the 
missionary, and there came the school teacher to pre- 
pare the growing community for worthy, Christian 
citizenship. 

Where the lumber-jacks penetrated the forests, there 
they were followed by the "sky pilot" to hold them 
true to Christian ideals. 

The frontier farmer, the immigrant settler on our 
wide prairies, was no sooner settled than he was sought 
out by the circuit-rider, that the rising generation 
might be so instructed as to become a defense and not 
a menace to society and country. 

Every school, every church, every family altar, every 
institution for helping the helpless, is a witness to the 
defensive power of Home Missions. No other power 
is adequate, no other can be trusted. 

A Lost Opportunity. — There was a time when the 
markets of South America were open to the United 
States and to be had for the taking. When William 
Wheelright went to investigate the commercial possi- 



142 OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

bilities throughout the republics of the South he re- 
turned to Boston full of enthusiasm and sought to 
enlist American capital in his great enterprise for the 
development of commerce between the United States 
and South America, but he found no response to his 
appeals. That was America's opportunity and it was 
suffered to pass. 

Wheelright then went to England and there found 
willing listeners and returned to Chile backed by Eng- 
lish capital. Railroads and telegraph lines were built 
in Chile and the Argentine Republic, and the Pacific 
Steam Navigation Company was organized, a company 
that practically controlled the trade of both coasts from 
the Isthmus of Panama to Cape Horn. So strongly 
has British trade entrenched itself that for almost two 
generations America has been a poor fourth in South 
American commerce. 

L There is a fine monument to William Wheelright in 
the plaza of Valparaiso, but it might well stand for a 
memorial to American folly in letting pass the great 
opportunity. We failed because we did not appreciate 
its value. 

Such an opportunity is again offered to us in this 
world's crisis to make good with Spanish America in a 
higher commerce. 

What Can We Do? — America has given to the 
world the highest form of government known to his- 
tory. It is laid upon this nation to give to the world a 
new diplomacy, one where language will be the expres- 
sion of truth, where treaties will not only be sacred, 
but where the plighted word of a nation will be backed 



A NEW ERA 143 

by the wealth, the power, and the lives of her people. 

Only thus can this great nation become a truly 
mighty power in the world. To reach this height of 
national honor we must begin with our nearest neigh- 
bors, the strangers within our gates. Had we done 
this from the beginning of our relations with South 
America and Mexico, the whole line of republics from 
the Rio Grande to the Cape would stand solidly with us 
against the world, if need be. But American egotism^ 
indifference, and injustice in the past stand as a mighty 
barrier between us and our nearest neighbor. 

The Bearing on Home Missions. — It may be asked, 
what has this to do with the question of Home Mis- 
sions? Everything: the half million or more of Mexi- 
can refugees who are now in the United States because 
of the war will form the nucleus around which will 
gather the elements for the new Mexico that is to be 
born ; and when that new Mexico is born there will re- 
main little of Old Spain. 

The children of the Mexican refugees are in our 
schools and are absorbing both the principles and spirit 
of our liberty, subject to law. They will never forget 
the horrors of the revolution, and those scenes will be 
contrasted, in their minds, with the peace they have en- 
joyed under the American flag. Many of the better 
class of Mexicans, for their children's sake, are taking 
out citizenship papers. What that means to them only 
those who know the Mexican's loyalty to his country 
and flag can appreciate. They have come to us with a 
bitter prejudice against all things American. In Mexi- 
can schools and histories the American flag is spoken 



144 OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

of as "La bandera odiada" (the hated banner), but 
here the people have found that it represents human 
rights for all races and nations. 

The people of southwest Texas have now the most 
serious problem with which they have ever had to deal. 
It consists not only of the Mexicans across the border, 
but the resident Mexicans, the majority of them illiter- 
ate and unskilled, who form more than half the popula- 
tion in some counties. In El Paso there are more than 
thirty thousand Mexicans, many of them people of cul- 
ture and refinement who have never known want, but 
who are now in destitute circumstances. Mexicans 
have reached California, New Mexico and Arizona also 
in great numbers, and both state and church are facing 
the problem. People of this country have been sending 
of their wealth across the ocean to the homeless and 
suffering, unmindful of the fearful need along the 
Mexican border. The first should be helped, but the 
others should not be left to perish. Some of the 320,- 
000 who have come to Texas alone are converts under 
the Protestant missionaries in Old Mexico. Those 
who have heard the Gospel message know their Bibles 
and are wonderful examples of Christian faith and en- 
durance. 

In the history of the United States so large a num- 
ber has seldom come to us from one foreign country in 
the same length of time. All the dangers we have 
faced from the immigrants who have thronged Ellis 
Island in past years are being faced on our southern 
border. Unless these individuals are won by the 
friendliness and kindness of our people, they will be a 



A NEW ERA 145 

great menace to our nation, but if they are reached and 
made to believe that we stand as brothers to help them 
in their destitution and misery, they will be a desirable 
element in our national life. Old Mexico will be more 
helped by missionary effort now in California, Texas, 
and elsewhere in the United States, than by the work 
of missionaries who may go across the border after the 
war ends. The people who become true followers of 
Christianity during their exile in this country will be 
the best missionaries to Mexico. We can today touch 
the Mexican life as never before. Never again will 
such an opportunity be given us. The Mexican must 
be regarded as a brother with rights as inalienable as 
ours. Churches for the preaching of the Gospel, in- 
dustrial schools to train the young people for the new 
duties of their changed life, and sympathetic fair treat- 
ment will be an intervention that will win a. large place 
in the love and confidence of the Mexico of to-morrow, 
and in Latin America for all time. 

The Church's Problem. — The problem, then, that 
confronts the Christian churches of America at this 
moment is the speedy evangelization of the million or 
more Mexicans in our land, and through them their 
countrymen across the border. The tremendous 
energy that was shown in exploration and in church 
building in the sixteenth century is not dead. It is in 
the tomb awaiting the voice of the Son of God. That 
energy, quickened by God's Spirit, can be used for the 
building of God's Kingdom in Latin America. 

John, being in the Spirit on the Lord's Day, had a 
wonderful vision of the things that should come to 



146 OLD SPAIN IN NEW AMERICA 

pass. Would that we, being in the Spirit, might have a 
glorious vision of the New America, from the frozen 
north to Cape Horn, under the influence of God's 
Spirit, unfolding in righteousness and truth. Mexico 
may be redeemed and blossom as the garden of the 
Lord. South America with her virgin forests, with her 
immense fertile plains and valleys, with her mountains 
full of untouched wealth, with the possibilities of her 
people awakening from the slumber of four centuries, 
will develop in material wealth and power. The task 
of transforming the two continents into a mighty world 
power, standing for the right of man to be and to do 
the very best possible, is today in the hands of Chris- 
tian America. 

■ 
- . 



APPENDIX 



APPENDIX 

CONCERNING THE GREAT SOUTHWEST 

1492 — Columbus discovered the New World. 

15 12 — Ponce de Leon discovered Florida. 

1513 — Balboa discovered the Pacific. 

1 5 19 — Cortez conquered Mexico. 

1539 — Ferdinand de Soto discovered the Mississippi 
River. 

1683 — Sack of Vera Cruz. 

1769 — Serra reached California and founded mis- 
sions. 

1 82 1 — Mexico freed from Spain. 

1845 — Texas admitted as a state. 

1848 — California and New Mexico ceded to United 
States by Mexico. 

Population 

Seven states have a large Mexican population, ac- 
cording to the last census, and since that was taken a 
far greater number of Mexicans, variously estimated 
from 500,000 to 1,000,000 have crossed the border. 
These have located almost entirely in these same states. 
The census report (1910) is as follows: 

Total Mexican 

Population Population 

Texas 3,896,542 125,016 

Colorado 799,024 2,603 

New Mexico 327,301 11,918 

Arizona 204,354 29,987 

California 2,377,549 33^94 

Oklahoma 1,657,155 2,744 

Kansas 1,690,949 8,429 

149 



150 APPENDIX 

Of the total population of Mexicans in the United 
States all but 5,412 were living in these seven states. 
In addition to the number who were born in Mexico 
there was recorded a population of 162,200 who were 
born of Mexican or mixed parentage. The total Mexi- 
can population including the foreign born and those of 
mixed or Mexican parentage amounted to 382,002. 

CUBAN FACTS 

1492 — Discovered by Columbus. 

1508 — Cuba discovered to be an island. 

151 1 — Velasquez sent to colonize. 

1524 — First slaves in New World brought to Cuba. 

1 55 1 — Havana became capital. 

1585 — Drake threatened attack. 

1762 — Invaded and conquered by the English. 

1763 — Returned to Spain by England. 
1829 — Uprising against Spain. 

1844 — Uprising against Spain. 

1848 — Chinese coolies taken to Cuba. 

1 868-1878 — Ten Years' War. (Cost Spain lives of 
8,000 officers, 200,000 privates and $300,000,000.) 

1869 — Slavery abolished by new Republic. (Total 
abolition, 1887.) 

1895 — Final war of liberation. 

1898 — Destruction of Maine, and interference of 
United States. 

1902 — Cuban Republic established. 

The trade of Cuba per capita is greater than that of 
any North or South American country. For 191 3- 
19 1 4 it amounted to $300,951,000, of which the ex- 
ports amounted to $169,130,000. 

The population of Cuba in 1907 was 2,048,980; of 
whom 1,224,510 were whites, 274,272 negroes, 334,695 
mulattoes, 11,837 Chinese, 203,696 foreigners. 

The following statistical table of results of Prot- 



APPENDIX 



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152 APPENDIX 

estant missions in Cuba was compiled by Rev. J. Milton 
Greene, D.D. for the Assembly Herald. Dr. Greene 
stated that something should be added for the Disciples, 
Adventists, and Pentecostals, whose figures he had not 
been able to secure. 

The Missionary District of the Episcopal Church in- 
cludes Cuba and the Isle of Pines. The Board appro- 
priates for this support $45,189 yearly. Forty-eight 
stations are maintained by this church. 

PORTO RICAN FIGURES 

1493 — Columbus first landed. 

I 5°9 — Ponce de Leon appointed governor. 

15 1 1 — Half Spanish force slaughtered by Indians. 

1533 — Authorities petitioned empress against fur- 
ther introduction of slaves. 

1595 — Attacked by Sir Francis Drake. 

1625 — Besieged by Dutch. 

1797 — Besieged by English. 

1837 — Porto Ricans deprived of right of representa- 
tion in Spanish Cortes. 

1868 — Insurrection of Lares. 

1873 — S 1 * 000 slaves received freedom. 

1895 — Reform laws enacted. 

1897 — Royal decree conceding autonomy to Porto 
Rico signed. 

1898 — Became possession of United States. 

1900 — Modified territorial form of government for 
Porto Rico voted by Congress. 

— Porto Ricans admitted to full citizenship. 

" A practical matter of first importance is the crea- 
tion of a public sentiment that shall insist upon the 
granting of the rights of citizenship to the Porto 
Ricans. The present situation is anomalous, full of 
friction and disastrous to the missionary as well as the 
other highest interests of the island. Porto Ricans will 



APPENDIX 153 

never feel right towards Americans until Americans 
treat them right in this matter of citizenship." 

Rev. Howard B. Grose, D.D. 

(Note. Statistical report of Protestant Missions in 
Porto Rico and map showing boundaries of these mis- 
sions are given in booklet " Protestant Missions in 
Porto Rico." Statistics were gathered in 191 1.) 

According to the last census the population of Porto 
Rico is 1,183,173. In 1915 the United States exported 
goods to Porto Rico to the value of $30,149,764 and 
imported from the same island merchandise valued at 
$41,950,419. 

The Legislature of 191 5 made women eligible for 
membership on school boards, designated a Mothers' 
Day, and established a juvenile court. 

PROTESTANT MISSIONS TO SPANISH AMERICANS 

In response to a questionnaire sent out to secure in- 
formation regarding the work of the different denomi- 
nations among Spanish speaking peoples, the following 
facts have been secured. The results have been un- 
satisfactory, as some failed to give any information, 
in some cases the information was not definite, and in 
others the work of the women's boards and the men's 
are so united that it has been necessary to give that 
of the entire Church. 

Cuba 

According to the most accurate data obtainable there 
are now laboring in Cuba 47 ordained missionaries, 40 
women missionaries, 200 native workers ; there are 
about 200 regular and outstations, 10,000 communi- 
cants, 7,000 pupils enrolled in Sunday schools, 27 day 
schools with an enrollment of 1,600 pupils, and 4 higher 
institutes with an enrollment of 375. 



154 APPENDIX 

Porto Rico 

Porto Rico has about 60 ordained missionaries, 65 
women missionaries, 210 native workers, 570 churches 
and outstations, with a total of 14,000 communicants. 
The Sunday schools of all denominations have an ag- 
gregate attendance of 13,000. There are 35 mis- 
sion day schools with approximately 3,000 pupils in at- 
tendance. The main purpose of the day schools was 
to cooperate with the public schools, providing for those 
in the cities who could not attend on account of pov- 
erty, or for the rural districts where there was inade- 
quate provision by the government. As fast as the 
public school system provides for the primary grades, 
the mission schools of like grade are being given up. 

The Baptist Training School at Rio Piedras, the 
Polytechnic Institute, interdenominational but under 
the auspices of the Presbyterian Church, in San 
German, the Theological Training School at Mayaguez, 
carried on by the Congregationalists, United Brethren 
and the Presbyterians are outstanding institutions. 

Three orphanages, the G. O. Robinson, for girls, at 
San Juan, and one for boys, bearing the same name, 
at Hatillo, under the Methodist Episcopal Church, and 
the Christian, for boys, near Bayamon, are providing 
for a class of children who, before the advent of Prot- 
estantism, were without hope. 

Three great healing institutions, St. Luke's, Epis- 
copal, at Ponce; the Presbyterian, at San Juan, and 
the Rye Hospital at Mayaguez, are doing as great a 
work as has ever been known in the history of modern 
missions. Clinics are held at different mission sta- 
tions, and the fame of the healings has gone through 
all the island. Another hospital is being erected by 
Congregationalists at Humacao. 

Baptist. — The missionary work of the Baptist So- 
ciety is a most important one and covers more territory 



APPENDIX 155 

than any other in the island. They have important 
churches in San Juan, Rio Piedras, Ponce, Yauco, Ad- 
juntas, Caguas, Cayey, and many other points. 

Fine church buildings have been erected by all the 
organizations engaged in missionary work, contributing 
largely to the success of the missionary effort in a land 
where the " temple " means so much in religion. 

The influence of the Christian character of the con- 
verts is being felt in all the island, and Protestantism 
will soon stand an equal chance with the dominant 
church. It must do more; the American ideal must 
take deep root in this guard of the Panama Canal. A 
strongly Christian population will be the best defense. 

In the Southwest 

In the United States proper, work is being carried on 
in six states, Florida, Texas, Colorado, New Mexico, 
Arizona, and California. In Florida the Spanish 
speaking people are mostly Cubans, while in the other 
five states they are Mexicans. 

Methodist Episcopal, South. — *In the States the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, is doing a large 
evangelistic work. They have 60 Mexican churches in 
Texas and 7 Cuban churches in Florida, with a total 
membership of 2,900; 27 missionaries, both men and 
women, are employed, 20 Mexican and 7 Cuban. 
There are under their care 62 Mexican and 7 Cuban 
Sunday schools, 1 boarding, 2 day, and 3 night 
schools with a total enrollment of 915. In medical and 
social work they have 17 deaconesses, 1 trained nurse, 
and 20 teachers. 

The work of this church among the Spanish speak- 
ing people began in 1881 among the Mexicans and in 
1892 among the Cubans in Tampa, Florida. The mem- 
bership in Tampa is 300, with a Sunday school enroll- 
ment of 500. 



156 APPENDIX 

Methodist Episcopal. — In California the Methodist 
Episcopal Church is successfully carrying on three lines 
of mission work: Evangelistic, including regular 
preaching services in the streets as well as in churches, 
distribution of tracts, literature and Bibles ; Social, aid- 
ing the poor with work, clothing and food, house to 
house and hospital visitation, opening reading-rooms 
and clubs ; Industrial, cooperative laundry, employment 
agencies and industrial education in the Spanish- Ameri- 
can Institute at Gardena. 

There are 11 regular charges, 14 outstations, and 4 
church buildings, with a total membership of 304. 

The two most important educational institutions for 
the Mexicans conducted by the Methodist Episcopal 
Church in California are the Spanish-American Insti- 
tute for boys, at Gardena, and the Francis De Pauw 
Industrial School for girls at Los Angeles. Both are 
well equipped and are doing a fine work. In New 
Mexico there is an industrial school for girls, located 
in Albuquerque, called The Harwood School, in recog^ 
nition of the services of Dr. Thomas Harwood, a 
pioneer missionary of that church. A settlement house 
has been opened in El Paso, in connection with the 
evangelistic work in that border city with its 40,000 
needy Mexicans. Another school for Spanish speak- 
ing girls, which was opened in Tucson, Arizona, is now 
housed in a commodious building of its own, and is 
preparing the home makers of the next generation. 

Presbyterian U. S. A. — The Presbyterian Church, 
U. S. A., has work among the Mexicans in the five 
southwestern states. The total church membership in 
the five states is 1,850. They have a strong work 
among the young people in Colorado ; the annual Chris- 
tian Endeavor conventions, held continuously for nine- 
teen years, and constantly increasing in interest, re- 
veal the strong hold the evangelical faith has upon the 
new generation of Spanish-American citizens. 



APPENDIX 157 

No class of mission work of this church has given 
better returns than the service rendered by the conse- 
crated teachers in the plaza schools. In Colorado and 
New Mexico the Presbyterians have 10 day schools 
with 15 teachers and an enrollment of 743 pupils. The 
most prominent schools under the Woman's Board of 
the Presbyterian Church in its work among the Mexi- 
cans are the Menaul Training School for boys at Albu- 
querque, New Mexico, the Allison-James School for 
girls at Santa Fe, and the Forsythe Memorial School 
for girls at Los Angeles. The Menaul school has a 
corps of 15 workers and an enrollment of 157; the 
Allison-James has 12 workers and an enrollment of 
105 ; and the Forsythe a corps of 6 workers and an en- 
rollment of 50. 

Already men and women have gone out from the 
New Mexican schools who are exerting a strong influ- 
ence in the educational and social life of New Mexico 
and Colorado; and even to Old Mexico have gone 
pupils who are carrying the seeds of the new life and 
hope to that stricken land. 

The Presbyterian Church, U. S. A., has work at only 
three points in Texas : El Paso, San Antonio, and San 
Angelo. In the latter place there is a day school in ad- 
dition to the regular church service. Settlement work 
will be undertaken soon in El Paso and San Antonio. 

Presbyterian, U. S. — The Presbyterian Church in 
the United States, or Southern Presbyterian Church, 
has been brought into close touch with a large Mexican 
population, especially in the state of Texas. They be- 
gan work there in 1883. A Texas-Mexican Presby- 
tery has been formed that includes the work in Mexico 
and Texas. There are more than 1,000 Mexican 
church members in this Presbytery. 

The increase of the Mexican population from 150, 
000 to 400,000 in the last ten years has laid upon this 
church a heavy burden in trying to meet the increasing 



158 APPENDIX 

demands for evangelistic and educational work. A 
new church building in El Paso has given a new im- 
petus to the work in that important center. 

An industrial school at Kingsville, Texas, is planned 
to meet the needs of the great Mexican population on 
the border, and is destined to exert a great influence in 
preparing for useful citizenship the hitherto neglected 
youth of Mexican birth. It was opened in 1912 with 
50 students and many more on the waiting list. The 
farm of 669 acres provides a fine field for agricultural 
instruction and experimental work. 

The work of the Presbyterian Church, U. S., in 
Florida, is confined to the Cubans in Ybor City and 
Key West. Exact statistics are not available. 

Congregational. — The Congregational Church sur- 
rendered its work in Cuba to the Presbyterian Church, 
U. S. A. In Porto Rico they have the eastern end of 
the island, in accordance with the comity agreement 
made between the different societies at the opening of 
the work immediately after the American occupation. 

The educational work at Blanche Kellogg Insti- 
tute, on the Military Road, in Santurce, has been dis- 
continued and the buildings are used for Community 
Settlement and Social Service. The statistics for the 
Congregational missions are fortunately available ; they 
are as follows : Ordained American Missionaries, 4 ; 
Native Workers, 7; Churches, 11; Membership, 731; 
Benevolent Contributions, $109.42; Outstations, 38; 
Women Missionaries, 3 ; Teachers in Blanche Kellogg 
Institute, 4. 

An advance has been made in comity by the union 
of the Congregational force with the Presbyterians, 
Baptists, and United Brethren in maintaining an 
Evangelical Press. A fourth hospital is promised for 
the eastern end of the island as soon as plans can be 
perfected. This will be under denominational con- 
trol. 



APPENDIX 159 

In Los Angeles the Congregationalists have, for some 
years, conducted an institutional work for both Ameri- 
cans and Mexicans ; but latterly the institutional work 
has been given up and the Mexican evangelistic work 
has been federated with that of the Presbyterians under 
a Presbyterian pastor, an arrangement that has proved 
satisfactory to all. 

In New Mexico they have three churches, five day 
schools, one very successful boarding school, the latter 
located at Albuquerque. 

The most important work of this church in the South- 
west is that in El Paso, where there is a flourishing 
church whose influence is being felt on both sides of the 
boundary line. Plans are i>eing discussed for a more 
extended effort in the line of social activity among the 
dense population in " Little Chihuahua." 

Christian. — The work of the Christian Church 
among the Spanish speaking people in Porto Rico is 
confined mostly to the southern part of the island, 
though they have an important work on a little strip in 
the north. There they have one church and an orphan 
asylum for boys. 

In the territory for which this church is responsible 
on the south, there are not less than 75,000 souls. For 
this great number they have only four missionaries. 
They have a church membership of 190, ten Sunday 
schools with an enrollment of 750, 5 organizations and 
a property valued at $14,000. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Acosta, Joseph de — Historia de Las Indias. 

Bancroft, H. H. — History of Arizona and New 
Mexico. 

Bancroft, H. H. — History of Mexico. 

Bourne, E. G, Ph.D. — Spain in America. 

Brown, Hubert W. — Latin America. 

Cappa, Padre Ricardo — Derecho de Conquistar 
America. 

Carter, O. C. S. — Acoma; The Cliff City of New 
Mexico. 

Craig, Robert M. — Our Mexicans. 

Curtis, William E. — Between the Andes and the 
Ocean. 

Davis, W. H. — Spanish Conquest of New Mexico. 

Dinwiddie, William — Porto Rico and Its Possibilities. 

Fairbanks, George R. — The Spaniards in Florida. 

Forbes-Lindsay — Cuba, Past, Present and Future. 

Forbes-Lindsay — Porto Rico. 

Fornaro Carlo de — Carranza and Mexico. 

Gutierrez de Lara, L. — The Mexican People and Their 
Struggle for Liberty. 

Grose, Howard B. — Advance in The Antilles. 

Halstead, Murat — The Story of Cuba. 

Inman, Col. Henry — The Old Santa Fe Trail. 

James, George Wharton — In and Out of the Old Mis- 
sions. 

Lummis, Charles F. — The Land of Poco Tiempo. 

Lummis, Charles F. — Spanish Pioneers. 

Lowry, W. — Spanish Settlements in the United States. 

Morris, C. — Historical Tales of Porto Rico. 

160 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 161 

Prince, L. Bradford — Concise History of New 
Mexico. 

Rankin, Melinda — Twenty Years Among the Mexi- 
cans. 

Read, Benjamin M. — Illustrated History of New 
Mexico. 

Reed, John — Insurgent Mexico. 

Rees, Thomas — Spain's Lost Jewels. 

Richman, L. B. — California Under Spain and Mexico. 

Romero, Matias — Mexico and the United States. 

Starr, Frederick — Mexico and the United States. 

Winton, George B. — Mexico To-day. 



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